A Dynamic Woman
Friday 23rd February 2007

Binta Jammeh Sidibeh is a dynamic, hard-working role model and a substantive woman, who is very committed to the development and empowerment of women of her nation. She is a Gambian citizen, graduate from Indiana university in The United States of America in1978, is the executive Director of APGWA association in The Gambia.

In our today’s edition of She She She, we have an opportunity to have an interview with her.

She She:  Can you define APGWA?

Binta: It means, Association for promoting Girls and Women Advancement in The Gambia.

She She: Why did you come up with this association?

 Binta: This Association was borne out of three key circumstances of my life . (1) is that being one of the first few woman graduates this accorded me that opportunity to take up a senior position as an administrator and a manager, (2) I worked with the Women’s Bureau under a project funded by the UNDP as a coordinator of the affairs of National  Women’s Council, training officer for women and responsible  for women legal affairs  and social reforms and the third one is my personal interest and commitments to use the little knowledge I have to contribute towards the empowerment  of women and girls. After having that experience when UNDP project phased out, myself and few women who have similar experience and interest for the development of women in the country decided to form this association which will be independent and autonomous. Also the ideas came from the beneficiaries at the grass-root level, because in 1990, a group of young girls from Talinding Community where I have been residing for the past 31 years approached me to be their adopted mother these groups of girls name themselves Sobeya (commitment) girls club, the following year a  Kanyalen women’s group followed suit so we discussed about their real circumstances and I discovered that they need assistance through various projects, then in 1992 we formed the Association.

She she: What are some of the constraints you encounter?

Binta: when we started, we didn’t have a single penny with us, we were doing contributions and with money we used to do petty trading, advocacy programmes with women, through that the idea of skills training centre and income generating projects for the women and kindergaten programme for the children came about, we decided to write a project proposal to carry out the above - mentioned activities.

She She: As we learnt you have some of your funds from Germany, so how did you come to know them?

Binta: It was when we started our advocacy programme to the villages we went to Pirang Village, so during that there were two journalists from Germany who visited The Gambia and were present at the programme. They then covered it, took out pictures and recorded all the activities and took them to Germany to donor agencies over there, so we were lucky to have funds, so thanks to the press.

She She: Do you get funds from the government?

Binta: No, it is entirely our own association.

She She: Can you tell us your aims and objectives for the Association?

Binta: First of all my aims are to empower women and eliminate their status, empower as you know covers everything like their political, social and cultural rights, educational rights, health, and traditional and cultural matters e.g FGM, early marriages, teenage pregnancy, issues that affect girl child, drop outs. My aims are to educate or reduce all these things.

She She: As you received some equipment from your donor agencies recently, so how will you distribute these equipments; what are these equipments?

Binta: We are working with eight villages across the country, so we are going to distribute accordingly to the felt needs of people e.g rice and coos milling machines, sewing machines in urban areas, type writers, computers for the skill centres and the chairs and tables for kindergartens.

She She: Do you give out loans to the Women groups?

Binta: Yes, we do give financial advice to the rural women and also have advocacy programmes with the women and we do explain to them about the CEDAW, the women protocol and we also seek their active participation for them to have pressure groups about legislation that concerns them.

She She: How many students are attending your skill centre?

Binta: We have two hundred and forty students.

She She: After their graduation do you employ them?

Binta: Yes, after every graduation we employ some, recommend some to other institutions, and assist others with loans to set up their own businesses.

She She: Thank you.

Binta: It’s a pleasure.