Speaking exclusively to Mansa Banko Online on March 30, 2022, the National Coordinator for Buzz Women-Gambia, Madam Fatou Touray-Cham, during an interview at her office in Brusubi, took a trip down memory lane, the history behind Buzz Women Gambia, whose mission to make low-income women the drivers of prosperity–for their own selves, for their families, and for their communities.
As deduced from her interview, it all started off when a dutch man holding a briefcase filled with secondhand clothes, meant for children in the Gambia, visited her in her office, and that person was none other Mr. Dave Jongeneelen–a Dutch tourist and philanthropist who had lived in the Gambia almost six years ago.
The purpose of the visit led him to one Mr. Ousman Cham who was working with Christian Children Fund (CCF) now ChildFund-The Gambia, as the Regional Director for West Africa at the time, for possible onward distribution of those secondhand apparel to Gambian children.
“Dave is a tourist with a difference; he doesn’t only come to enjoy the sunshine and beaches, but he always believes that something could be done to change things,” according to the Buzz Gambia executive lady. She recalled that the philanthropist was directed to Mr. Cham of (CCF) who was then having a programme in Foni Bintang village, West Coast Region, where that briefcase was handed over; but before that handing over took place, an idea of a Mobile Training Bus (MTB) was suggested by Regional Director Cham as some women at the event in Foni Bintang were not able to get inside the venue of the programme, and therefore, failed to benefit from that programme.
The Buzz National Coordinator continued to recount, “In 2017, a women leadership journey was organized by women from the Netherlands and The Gambia to exchange ideas on how best to tackle social issues dealing with women and children by mapping out strategies for one week [gathering] in Bwiam.”
Even though this Mobile Training Bus (MTB) scheme was born in the Gambia, it was first experimented in India before the Gambia as the dutch national travelled to India for a similar philanthropic mission where he met one man who introduced him (Dave) to his wife Uthara Narayanan who–as luck would have it– was equally thinking along those humanitarian lines and happened to be a core-founder to this NGO in India.
Madam Touray-Cham further told this medium, it was in 2018 that her organization was formally registered in the Gambia, and started operations through the provision of education, entrepreneurship skills, basic business, economic and financial literacy and women empowerment opportunities such as self-esteem and awareness to Gambian women
In her view, the uniqueness of Buzz Women- Gambia is that they have “fully equipped buses with chairs and training kits [a classroom-in-a-bus]”, and that they meet their trainees in their villages and homes where these women trainees have the luxury to set convenient times for their training sessions in rural or peri-urban centers across the country. She pointed out that from its inception to date, her NGO has trained over 9,000 women and their target is to train 100,000 women in the next five years, as they have four training buses and every bus is equipped with a trainer, while each trainer trains 30 women daily.
However, as was to be expected, the Organisation is not without challenges, and the National Coordinator cited as lack of sufficient funding, and also indicated that initially, their work was affected by politics because they used to work directly with village chiefs (heads) which was politically misconstrued by communities.
In terms of sustainability strategies, the beneficiaries of Buzz Women have agreed to contribute one dalasi every week for one year, so that the accumulated funds would be ploughed back to the organization for the training of other women across the country.
On their success stories, the Gambia’s Buzz Women chief specifically singled out one Aji Fatou of Bafuloto village, a beneficiary of Buzz Women Gambia’s training in 2018. She noted that Aji was able to use her business and entrepreneurship skills to revive the Bafuloto’s village market by involving the Village Development Committee (VDC) and her fellow women there.
Aji Fatou was already into business before Buzz Women Gambia trained her, but separating the business from her daily spending was a real challenge for her as, in Cham’s explanation, Aji Fatou was using her daily business earnings on social ceremonies which, consequently, got her into endless debts.
She went on: “After the training with Buzz Women Gambia, Aji was able to place herself on salary from her business, and she spent according to her salary; no extra spending by her anymore.”
The Buzz National Coordinator is of the strong view that women should not feel that they are poor. Reason: “Gambian women can do it as they know how, when and where to do things.”
She rounded off by enthusing that it’s always pleasing to get to the field in the morning and return home in the evening knowing how many lives you have changed.
