 
Contact Address:
Action
Aid - Gambia Branch 
AATG Banjul area Head Office
MDI Road, Kanifing South
PMB 450Serrekunda
PO Box 725 Banjul
The Gambia, West Africa
Tel no: +220 4392244 / 4392029
4392004, 9966045
Fax:
4392425
Email: jainaba.nyang@actionaid.org
Mohamedlamin.touray@actionaid.org
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Information:
Action Aid The Gambia is a UK charity organisation which
began operating in The Gambia in 1979, and now works
with 200,000 people.
It supports the basic rights and needs of poor people,
working at a practical level to improve their access
to services and lobbying government and other decision-makers
to change policies and practices that affect their lives.
Action Aid is an affiliate of AATG UK which is a Charity
and non-profit making organisation. AATG is an International
Non-governmental Organisation working with poor communities
and other stakeholders in eradicating poverty. The organisation
is non-political, non religious and non racial. AATG
is a non-profit organization with equal opportunities
for employment for everyone.
Wherever possible, Action Aid works with local organisations
so that change is appropriate and long-lasting. In the
areas where AATG operates, there are over 700 local
associations, whose approach is based on the Mandinka
word TESITO, meaning self reliance.
Mission:
Their mission is to enable poor and marginalised people
achieve their basic needs and rights and thus ensure
social equity and justice.
Geographical Areas of Operations:
Kuntaur :
The area covers 960 square km, divides into four chiefdoms
and is home to 59,465 people. Eighty percent of the
population in this area are subsistence farmers.
Falladu West
785 square km, home to 68,800 people, this hilly area
divides into two chiefdoms. Forest areas have been cleared,
bush fires are common and rainfall is low. Ninety-eight
per cent of the population are farmers.
Wuli/Sandu
Covering an area of 858 square km, home to around 35,023
inhabitants, this area is characterised by high river
banks and large gullies caused by severe erosion
Gender Policy:
Traditional norms and values place restrictions on the
lives and well being of girls, boys, women and men in
many, if not all societies in the world. With regards
to education, decision-making power, paid employment
and access to productive resources such as land, to
name a few, boys and men tend to be favoured, while
women and girls experience greater restrictions.
In The Gambia for example, the potentials of girls and
women, who constitute half the population, are not realised
because of social imbalances. These coupled with insensitivity
to certain instruments that have been laid down to protect
the rights and dignity of girls and women make it impossible
for their potentials to be fully tapped.
ActionAid's new strategy of Fighting Poverty Together
and its corresponding Africa strategy Ingendo require
that they put the challenge to get boys, girls, men
and women to embrace one another for the common good
at the heart of their new approach to poverty eradication.
Education Advocacy Campaign:
The main purpose of the campaign at national level is
to assist government to develop and promote local policies
and practices which would enhance the provision of quality
education for all, particularly the poor and marginalised
people. At Regional level, the national campaign networks
are linked to Africa-Network Campaign for Education
For All (ANCEFA). This body is also a member of the
Global Campaign for Education and Elimu Campaign for
Education. All these linkages are meant to create that
south/north movement towards the provision of education
for all by southern governments, through civil society
participation in acting as a watchdog of the poor and
marginalised people. |
