Activist: 'Voluntary youth work can pioneer development'

Bakary Badjie, CPA

Bakary Badjie, programme officer, Child Protection Alliance, has said young people should do away with the idea that voluntary youth work is a waste of time, and rather see it as a societal activity that can pioneer development to individuals, nations as well as the world. Mr Badjie said this over the weekend while delivering a motivational statement during the Activista-Kanifing Municipality certificate presentation ceremony held at the Multipurpose Hall, KMC.

The recipients underwent twenty hours of training from 22-23 February 2014 on volunteerism work, leading to their certification.
In citing example of many people, Badjie said serving youth organisations made some of them get work through which they were able to foot their higher education bills and become what they are today. “We should not expect everything to be done for us on a silver-platter. Youth volunteerism work is not useless as many may think, but on the contrary, it makes people excel and achieve their goals in life,” Badjie voiced out. In his advice to the young participants of Activista-KM and others both in attendance and not, he figured out motivation as a key tool towards achieving a goal, saying: “If you are motivated to do what you want there is a huge chance of you getting there. We have to be positive in our attitudes during our attraction with both our colleagues and the society, and persuade them to give youth work a high prominence”.
In his statement, Nfamara Jarju, acting national coordinator of Activista-The Gambia, said the orgaisation has about 5,000 youth volunteers around the country who are engaged in the fight against negativities in the society, notably hunger. “They are campaigning to reduce the negative effects faced by people, through sharing their experiences and networking,” Jarju said. “We as young people are the leaders of tomorrow and we should work to brighten our future now. The progress is not done individually, which is why we do networking and engage the society through our activities. It is time for us the young people to campaign and 'Up with Justice and down with hunger!'
In his closing remarks, Lamin Ceesay, regional focal person, Activista-KM, said: “We have in the past engaged in other trainings such as gardening, entrepreneurship. This time around, we deemed it necessary to trim the training down to volunteerism, after which we hope to organise a national training-of-trainers in the near future,” he stated.

Author: Abdoulie Nget Published on the Standard Newspaper