By Yero S. Bah
A seasoned Social Worker, Mr. Omar B. Jammeh of Jambanjelly village, has lamented “lack of sufficient funding” as one of the biggest challenges that social work projects suffer from in the Gambia, as he argues the profession is all about sponsorship and program implementation for people from the grassroots communities.
Jammeh, who is the Sponsorship and Program Assistant responsible for Jambanjelly Community Association and its catchment areas, namely Jambur, Mamuda, Rumba, Sarabiggy, and Pacholin villages, said all the said communities are under his purview as a social work officer with Ding-Ding Yiriwa Federation, a local ChildFund affiliated federation in Kombo South, West Coast Region (WCR).
Speaking to this medium on Wednesday, in Jambanjelly, Jammeh informed that child sponsorship focuses on promoting programmatic development of the child by supporting and maintaining quality person-to-person relationship between the children and sponsors. He stated that their overarching core values incorporates the principles of child protection and help in ensuring that all children benefit equally from the sponsorship system.
As the sponsorship and Program Assistant explained, the sponsorship method looks at the programs and activities through the “eyes of the families and children” enrolled, intima that since all activities are focused on development, it should be enjoyable, fun as well as really accessible to all children.
Social Worker Jammeh held that the profession is very important as it deals directly with the grassroots communities to know their problems and their living conditions; but claimed that communities are not supportive to social workers as expected due to what he described as the norms, traditional beliefs and the culture of silent in the country.
He also highlighted some of the challenges faced by the profession and officials in the field such as inadequate funding and inadequate human resources. But Jammeh is hopeful the challenges could be averted if more funding is made available as well as recruiting more people to increase the human resource capacity which, he believes, would also reduce the workload on social workers in the Gambia.
He continued, “The reason why I chose social work is to serve my people with the little experience and knowledge I got.”
The Jambanjelly Community Association official concluded this interview by maintaining that social work is the only work that directly offers volunteers opportunities, to interact and share with the communities.
