By Fatou B Cham
Lack of local opportunities is the common reason advanced by many youths who embrace the desire to leave the country even it means taking the irregular and dangerous route out. One group that is defying that reasoning is the Backway Returnees’ Association. This association was formed by a group of youth returned to the country after a failed attempt to reach the shores of Europe through some irregular and dangerous means. The Association is operating a thriving poultry scheme in the village Giboro, through the support of the Building Resilience against Food and Nutrition in the Sahel Project (P2RS). The P2RS is jointly funded by the Government of The Gambia and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Lamin Darboe, an irregular migrant returnee, is the President of the Backway Returnees’ Association. During a recent visit to the poultry by the former Minister of Agriculture, Darboe disclosed that the Association is made up of seventy members - forty females and thirty males.
“Lack of employment was one of the reasons we embarked on this deadly journey to Libya, but now that we are engaged we are not thinking of leaving our country again. We want to use the experience we gained through our journey to develop this sector,” he stated.
On their plan and expectation, the association’s president said they want the poultry farm to be extended for not only broiler chicken but also layers, so that all the members in the association can be engaged on daily basis.
On their challenge, Darboe mentioned transportation as one of the major challenges
Former minister Amie Faburay expressed delight at the progress at the poultry and the commitment of the young people operating the farm.
She noted that poultry farming is part of the ministry’s agricultural transformation agenda. “Because the amount of poultry supplies imported into this country is huge and this has also contributed to the high cost of living in the country”.
She assured that the poultry farm would be expanded by the Ministry as requested, and tricycles would be provided soon to ease the issue of transportation.
The CPCU Coordinator, Mr Abdoulie Touray, also commended the members of the association while unveiling that there are projects coming up which will address most of the issues highlighted by the young poultry farmers.
“We want to ensure that Gambian youth are empowered especially in the areas of poultry production, horticulture, maize production, cashew and other important sectors,” he asserted.
Isatou Savage, Regional Livestock Director for West Coast Region, who doubles as the Focal Person for P2RS, explained that the poultry scheme provides income and employment opportunities to the irregular migrant returnees.
“The project, when expanded will create employment to not only the association members but other young people as well,” she stated.
On behalf of the association, Mariama Bah, irregular migrant returnee, thanked the government for the support.