Business Women Cry for Help
Friday 25th November 2005

As long as there is life, one should have hope and at the same time rule out not hardship in one’s life, though in any circumstances there should be limitation.

Recently some businesswomen who were selling at Sandika in Serekunda were ordered to leave the place for renovation by KMC.

That’s fine; but do the authorities aware that the women are encountering serious constraints since they were ordered to vacate the area and no other place provided for them to continue their business from where they eke out their living?

The innocent, hardworking and helpless women are still struggling under the sun searching for suitable place to sell their commodities. But because some of us are living in luxury, we tend not to care about the plight of our suffering mothers, who spend the whole day struggling under the sun and rain to sell their coal, brooms, lime, green leaves, fish, salt, pepper and other commodities in order to eke out a living for themselves and their families.

Why should these poor and hard working mothers of ours be left to suffer in such manner? Are they not also contributing to the GDP of our economy? Are they not working hard to educate and support their children, who are our compatriots? Why not the authorities do something quickly and the municipality try to allocate them another place by the time the renovation is completed?

At any level, they too contribute to the national economy, pay dues to KMC and buy tickets as other people selling  at comfortable place in the market. 

In this week’s edition, we brought you the interview we had with some of the women at Sandika. Please read on:

(Continue here from last week)

Mariama Jabbi: We really need the renovation because the Sandika is very muddy at this time of the year, but we should be given a place to sell.

We need more empowerment, and as we are not workers, we therefore find our living in the market. The government should help us, as we contribute a lot to the development of the country I don’t think we deserve such a treatment.

Tunko Jammeh: We are definitely suffering under the hot sun, struggling for survival, as we have nowhere to sell. We need a comfortable place at the other part of the market to sell; but hanging around is not good for us. Business derails; the police keep driving us from one place after another. What can we do then? To be frank, we are sick and tired of all this.

Kolliba Colly: We want the government to consider us and give us more empowerment because it is not only the men that can vote in a President, the women too can do it.  We are ready to work in order to help our families and contribute to nation building. We are appealing to the government to help us so that we can also help our family and contribute in building the nation.

Fulo Fatty: We are all Gambian citizens; I think we should help one another. For us, we don’t rely on one type of business; anything that goes that’s what we sell. And moreover we get our goods in Sandika and sell them there. So if we should leave this place it will be very difficult for us to get another place to do our business.

We need urgent help from the government, because we are suffering and can’t make money all this time we have been evicted. We have school going children and have to support them. School is about to reopen.

Mam Barrow: This problem has brought us serious difficulties. We have no place to sit and sell. Anywhere we sit down, the police throw away our goods. I once fell down when the police were running after us. How can one live in such a difficult situation. Frankly speaking, hanging around to sell is very strenuous. The government should work quickly to complete the renovation.

Fatou Sonko: I am very desperate about the situation we are in at the moment. I have nowhere to sit and sell, and have no other job to do. Sandika is only place I sell to find my daily bread and solve some of my family problems. It is very difficult for us who find our daily bread in Sandika. We are appealing to the government and the KMC to help us out of this situation. We are really tired and fed up.

Mansang Jammeh: I am every day struggling under the burning sun with my baby, all because I don’t want to sit at home doing nothing. We need help; sitting under the sun makes the business very slow. As school is about to open and the children must go to school, we just struggle and manage to sell our goods.  It is very hard though.  I think the government should help us out of this problem.

With all the sufferings we are going through, we still continue to help our women encountering, they still continue to assist our partners at home. We must help each other for the betterment of the family.   Some men never praise women. The government should empower us more so that we contribute more to building our families and the nation. We are working very hard to support our homes; we deserve praises from our husbands and menfolk, as empowering a women is empowering a nation.

Long Live Gambian Women!  Long Live African Women!