The Gambia Press Union and Gambia Media Support (GAMES) an international NGO based in Denmark signed a contract early November 2007 at a tune of 1.2 million dalasis.The contract objective is to strengthening the media in the Gambia and build the capacity of the secretariat of the GPU.The project will last for two years and at the end of this period, 16 missions of a colleague to colleagues training would have been conducted.
The project started last month with a colleague to colleague type of training missions from Denmark . So far three missions have visited the Gambia from Denmark and had three successful training sessions with Gambian journalists. The training was in the areas of editorial management, field reporting, online journalism and web-mastering courses.
The current mission who comprises messes Irmelin Viegas and Birger Agereaard Started on Friday the 1 of February 2008, this will go on for a week. This mission is engaging ten journalists. Participants are coming from the Gambia News and Report weekly magazine, the Point newspaper, Foroyaa newspaper and the support staff of the Gambia Press Union. The journalist are divided into two groups, one on field reporting and the other on online reporting and web management.
The previous mission included one which was done in December 2007.That mission dealt with editorial management, and two newspapers and a radio station took part. The papers were the Point newspaper and Foroyaa newspaper and the only radio that took part was the City limit. Gambia Radio and Television Services did not respond to the invitation due to some misunderstandings.
The trainers were Flemming Seiersen and Camilla Favrholdt Lofvail.The later is from radio Denmark News, while the former is a print journalist. The trainees were Sam Sarr, Ousman Sillah and Suwaibou Touray all of Foroyaa newspaper. Then the other trainees included Ebrima Sawanneh and Momodou Justice Darboe of the Point newspaper.
Speaking briefly at the opening of the current session on Friday 1 February 2008, Mr. Madi M.K. Ceesay, President of the Gambia Press Union told the participants to make maximum use of the training. This he said is a big opportunity for us at the GPU to have gone into such a big contract. He expresses optimism that by the end of the two year contract many of our journalists will have good training from our colleagues in Denmark . He said the contract will also look at the technical aspects of our jobs. He assured the journalists that by the end of the project all media institutions in the country will benefit in respective of them being public, private, electronic, print media or even being a member of GPU.
He thanked GAMES with especial thanks to Lars Moller the President of GAMES who have put much time and effort from the initial times to date. The GPU executive and staff were all thanked.
Mr. Charles Camara the project Coordinator told the participants that this is the third mission. The other two successfully ended their missions some times ago. He told the participants that the project will benefit a good number of Gambian journalists. He urged them to form themselves in to profession association at the end of their trainings.