Lady Earns Masters in Taiwan —A Shared Experience
Friday 17th August 2007

Higher education in The Gambia, traditionally associated only with men, is now becoming a thing of the past with yet another lady bagging her masters. Ms Adama Ceesay, who has been studying in Taiwan in the past three years, has now added her name on the list of highly educated women in the country after she secured her Masters in Education at the National Taiwan Normal University.

Speaking to our reporter, Nfamara Jawneh recently, Madam Ceesay spoke about her experience in Taiwan. She started by applauding what she called the beautiful country of kind-hearted people of Taiwan for their kindness to her during her stay there.

She commended The Taiwan International Corporation Development Fund (Taiwan ICDF) which according to her, has gone the extra mile by providing us with assistants (“baby sisters”) who were made available to us at all times to help us with any thing we needed.

According to her, the Taiwanese lecturer or teacher generally cannot be questioned, a situation which disturbed her at the beginning of her studies, adding that this was unlike The Gambia where students have the opportunity to challenge a lecturer and voice their views and perspectives in class.

“In the first semester, I did argue a lot with some of the lecturers on some topical issues, but by the end of the semester, it became apparent that I needed to go by the standard practices of the collegiate,” she noted.

She further observed that it was mostly foreign students who argued and made contributions while the local students kept quiet and focused on the dogmatic teachings of the instructors.“ This should not be taken as an inability to comprehend but to the local culture of listening agreeably to the Master. 

For Madam Ceesay, learning to speak Chinese is the easiest thing to do but learning to identify Chinese characters is the most difficult thing in life. This she continued, is where I got my hardest drills in my learning experience. “I never thought that there is a language in the world that does not have an alphabet as a base to write words. It is only when I started learning Chinese that I started to know this, ” she added.

On festivals, she said that she attended at least two main festivals; the first one was the Moon Festival in 2005, held at the town of Dajia at the invitation of their Taiwanese roommate. It was quite an experience for her, she admitted. As the only black person in the midst of the local people, some of whom have never seen a “hei ren” (black), it turned out to be a “free movie” for some of the Taiwanese, especially the older ones.

The second and another most interesting thing was the lantern festival in 2006 at the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall where she was exposed to a kind of dance which she had never seen before.

According to her, the secret behind the success of Taiwan is honesty and hard work among Taiwanese people. An average Taiwanese will work from 7am to 10pm every day. All shops and 80% of businesses open 7 days a week, she said.

According to her, most public holidays are paid for by working for extra hours to gain the day lost.

To sum up, she noted that the Taiwanese culture is alive and kicking! “The Taiwanese people are the most humble, modest and unassuming people I have ever interacted with,” she concluded.

 

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The health of every human being is important and should be considered first before any other thing. But first and foremost the society should put the health of women, especially their reproductive health, in forefront because wherever there are healthy women there will be a wealthy nation.  When a woman is not healthy her children can’t be healthy, because of the proximity of mother and child particularly in the case of contagious or congenital diseases. I think the most important thing here is that individuals should be ready to help another, and the society should join hands and at least help BAFROW in promoting women’s health and women’s rights. In today’s issue of SHE SHE SHE we quoted from BAFROW’S Foundation for Research on Women’s health, productivity and the environment. Please read to know more:

Good health is a precondition for high productivity. The general health status of women is usually an impediment in their efforts to achieve and maintain a high level of productivity. There are also certain health problems, which are specific, or most practices and behavioral patterns that are hazardous to women’s health and inhibit free discussion on problems that are associated with women’s sexuality.

Women’s reproductive health status attracts the attention of the world today. Different reproductive health problems such as sexually transmitted infection, including HIV/AIDS, infertility, infant morbidity and mortality, maternal death, and a host of others, thrive at an alarming rate. They subject multitudes of people to poor states of health which, in extreme cases, lead to death. In the same vein, violence against women contributes tremendously to their lack of self-esteem and stability.

BAFROW’S health programme is reproductive-focused. .It aims to reduce and, where possible, stop altogether the reproductive health-related problems prevalent in the country, using integrated tactics or a holistic approach.

Activities under this component include:

Community mobilization for health promotion

Here we embark on continual   social mobilization for health promotion and protection targeting women and young persons. This programme assists women  by  providing them  with   knowledge and  information  on issues relating to their health  and environment  such  as how the human  body function s , sexual and reproductive heath, basic hygiene and environmental  sanitation  issues.

Well Women’s Clinics

The Well Women’s Clinics are a unique innovation   in The Gambia’s bid for improved health for all. It comprises gynecological and sexual health clinics established by the foundation at strategic locations across the country.  In these clinics, clinical   attendance  and  one-to-one counseling  on how to take care of certain  sexual and reproductive health  problems, detecting  symptoms, and  how and where to report problems, are addressed. Referrals and follow- up of clients to appropriate health facilities are equally undertaken.  Mothers are also  given   nutritional   briefing   and  encouraged to  breastfeed  their  babies for the first  six months  after  birth  before switching   over to processed  or self-made foods, for the  overall  health  of  babies.

Campaign against Female Genital Mutilation  

BAFROW is immersed in a campaign to eradicate all harmful traditional   practices that impinge on women and female children’s rights and health, especially female genital mutilation. This programme is informed   by  both  scientific   and socio-cultural  evidence that female  genital  mutilation, or FGM, has   some  immediate   and   long-lasting  adverse health   and social  effects  some of which  are irreversible   with   serious  physical,  psychological    and emotional consequences. In our campaign against harmful traditional practices, we understand that there are many positive   strands   in the nexus of our traditional   practices. We try to encourage and even seek for more benefits. One  such example is the organization’s   restructuring of passage rites  for girls  in  which  we encourage the ceremonial  initiation of  girls  into   womanhood  with  all  its paraphernalia   minus the actual genital  mutilation   of  girls.

The strategy for the restructuring   of the passage rites is a major breakthrough in the history of anti-FGM campaigns in The Gambia. The concept  is  loved , respected  and  appreciated  by  many Gambian  communities    because it  recognizes  and identifies   itself with  the  indigenous  culture.

HIV/AIDS programme

BAFROW is continually intensifying its campaign     on HIV/AIDS prevention   through   all available media, including   traditional folklore, street theatres, public rallies   and outreach interventions. Through  the Well Women’s  Clinics, BAFROW is currently implementing    a community  and civil   society  initiative   on HIV/AIDS  prevention   in  the  western  and  lower  river   divisions  in The Gambia. Some useful   interventions to slow the epidemic include voluntary    counseling and testing (VCT) as well as educating people on condom use. The target beneficiaries   of this programme  are basically child bearing women, women who  are sexually active, men , young  people  aged between 12 and 25 years , and people  living   with   HIV/AIDS (PLWHA).

Counseling,   sensitization    and documentation   of women’s rights/ violations

Under this sub-component, BAFROW counsels   women who become victims   of   domestic violence and other rights violations, on how and where to seek redress, as well as how to cope with and find solutions to their problems. Newsletters    are also periodically published in local languages to sensitize   grassroots women   on their rights. Furthermore, the foundation   organizes regular workshops targeting policy- makers, opinion   leaders, and women, to sensitize the n on pertinent   issues relating to women and children’s rights. BAFROW has an Observer Status with the African   Commission on for Human and Peoples Rights.