GAMCOTRAP trains community facilitators

The Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (GAMCOTRAP) on 26 October 2010 held one-day training for its community-based facilitators.

The daylong session was meant to equip participants on how to use monitoring tools to collect information at community level regarding Female Genital Mutilation.

The session, held at Gamcotrap's new head office in the Kanifing Industrial Area, was attended by facilitators working with various women's rights NGOs.

The training also aimed at creating a favourable environment for the Committee's work at the community level to enhance its objective of eradicating female genital mutilation in The Gambia.

The training attracted security officers, key stakeholders, community-based facilitators, community leaders, religious leaders, teachers and school authorities.

The training was also meant to create opportunity for participants to share field experiences as community-based facilitators.

In a power point presentation Ms Amie Bojang-Sissoho, programme coordinator of Gamcotrap, said: "A base-line study is needed as an entry point in order to understand the initial situation and to assess the process that has been made by the end of the project."

Mrs Bojang-Sissoho added that the training would also help Save the Children (SCS) to understand "the particular situation for each partner".

A base-line study that was provided by UNIFEM would be a key part of the project, she said.

"A base-line study shall be carried out before the project starts, or shortly after it has started, as well as at the end of the project," Mrs Bojang-Sissoho said, adding that the same study will be done again by the end of 2012.

She revealed that the base-line study aims at collecting data related to the objectives of the project. "It consists both of general data linked to different areas of the project, as well as predefined indicators," she noted.

She also told participants: "The data fields which you find in document 'Base-line Study Template' are mandatory. Each partner is encouraged to add other fields which are relevant in order to give a good picture of its specific context/situation."