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Oyster season endsFriday, July 11, 2008 “The culture of Oyster harvesting has been with us generations. Just like fishing activities, its harvesting procedure includes: harvesting from mangroves, processing as well as marketing, and it is done by women in The Gambia”, said Fatou Mboob Janha, coordinator of the Try Oyster Women Association, at Camalo along the Banjul/Serekunda highway, as the oyster season ends on Tuesday. Mrs Mboob, a long time customer, said that, she one day visited the group, at their processing site and was deeply compelled by the fact that, these women are for many years not progressing neither being patronised. According to her, having known what their problems were, she proposed and organised an oyster festival last year, in order to raise funds as a starting capital, for revival and legal registration of the association. She disclosed that, the success of the festival was as a result of many fulfilled pledges that amounted to D41,000.00 from the invitees. She added that, some of the constraints the group faced are: lack of security, as they are sometimes attacked by criminals, which in 2006 resulted to the death of their colleague. Two other women were attacked, wounded and hospitalised, Lack of standard shelter, with a storage facility for both products and materials. Lack of bathrooms, processing centre and also oyster market are their main constraints. Resting on the above constraints, she said, the women pleaded to Government, NGOs, FAO and other developmental institutions for help. “Since the establishment of the association, The Gambian people have seen improvement in these women. They are all put on uniforms, gloves, and use plastic bags while selling the oysters. Each and everyone of them has a bank account, three boats. The processing site is clean and healthy . To organise a two day workshop for the association, we are still requesting for funds”, she stated. Mrs Mboob appealed to Government, NGOs, private and Public sectors and individuals, to come to the aid of these women. As the oyster season ends, they need jobs in order for them to survive and to help their children. According to the women, they would like to engage themselves in any meaningful job, such as house or office cleaners, Selling, farming and others ,so as to enable them pay their children school fees and their house rent. In another development, Papa Secka and Madam Fatou Ndoye, from the Environmental Development Action (ENDA), in Senegal, on Tuesday, visited the Oyster women association at their site. They were accompanied by two fisheries officials, from the fisheries department. According to the visitors, ENDA is an NGO in Senegal, and they help the women in senegal , especially those involve in oyster processing. They added that, the purposed of their visit is to see some of the constraints these women are facing and when they go back to Senegal they will see how they can help them with some of their constraints, especially when the season ends. Anna Mbenga Cham and Dawda Saine, senior fisheries officers, from the fisheries department also assured the association of their fullest support and cooperation. Author: by Mariatou Ngum-Saidy |
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