Fish smokers/dryers at the Brufut Fish Landing Site have called on the Gambia Government and stakeholders to assist them with equipment to enhance their work.
The lack of the requisite tools, as alluded to by the fish dryers, is hampering the smooth running of their fish drying work which is their major source of livelihood.
The GIZ implemented ECOWAS Regional and Sustainable Development Fund dubbed RSDF, runs from 2020 to 2022, targeting 3000 young people, including women and migrant returnees in Upper River Region (URR), Lower River Region (LRR) and Greater Banjul Area (GBA).
It aims to improve the skills and income generating opportunities of young people along selected value chains in agriculture sector, fisheries, horticulture and poultry, as well as providing micro and small businesses information on access to finance and financial services, life skills training and psychosocial support to the migrant returnees.
The Brufut fish dryers made their appeal during the recently concluded community cleansing exercise organized by the GIZ, in collaboration with Fisheries Department, GAMWORKS, PEM, beneficiaries at the site, and also the community of Brufut.
The cleansing exercise, among other things, was to ensure that the fish products therein are safe for human consumption.
Ms. Marget Sallah, a fish dryer, expressed appreciation over the exercise, hoping it would guarantee their safety and hygiene, stressing the fish people consume must be kept clean and protected from contamination by environmental wastes.
“Our difficulty is in relation to the lack of adequate drying tools and [that] is affecting our work; and this is our major source of livelihood. We are calling on the government and relevant stakeholders to help us with the required tools, so that we can do our work with ease,” she echoed.
Ms. Kaddy Touray said: “The cleansing exercise is significant as it will ensure a healthy environment. As old adage goes: cleanliness is next to healthiness.
“We dry fish and sell them to make earnings, but we need help from the stakeholders such as working tools and drying tables so that we are able to dry our fish and protect them against perish,” the fish dryer decried.
“I dry fish but our drying tables are dilapidated and the salt we use to dry fish are in inadequate supply. And we are in dire need of help to reconstruct standard drying tables for us. Business was going fine prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, but since COVID-19 struck, our earning has been handicapped,” another fish dryer, Fatima Jatta, pointed out.
Essa Faye, another fish dryer lamented that huge quantity of their fish get perished during the rainy season, and therefore intimated provision of enough fish drying tools would address the problems they are facing.
Faye appealed to the GIZ and relevant stakeholders to help them with the needed equipment, to ensure the smooth running of their work.
