Greetings to all on this list and mbaa nyep nyang si jamma!

A colleague of mine here in Chicago has been granted a Fullbright to reserach "street papers" - generally these are newspapers which are published by homeless people.  Apparently she attended a conference in Russia in 1998 and out of 3 of these "street" papers from the African continent, one was from The Gambia.   I'd never heard of it, but I was living in Essau at the time and I believe this paper hailed from the greater Banjul area.  Anyone with any info on this, please respond either to [log in to unmask] or to [log in to unmask] directly.  What follows is the message she sent me: 

Nikki, Good to see you last night.  I dug in my files and found a
reference to an Adama Bah who represented "Concern", a so-called street
publication from The Gambia at the Fourth Conference of International
Network of Street Papers (INSP) held in November 1998 in St. Petersburg,
Russia.  Two years ago, the Gambian paper was listed as a member of the
INSP but i have not run across a reference to it since.  Background
info. (probably more than you ever wanna know--but it relates to the
research I've been working on for the past five years): INSA is the
European-based organization started by London's Big Issue which was one
of the first so-called street papers of the modern era (late 1980s).
Street papers range from single handwritten newsletters written by
street people to polished  magazines like Big Issue which cover the arts
and culture for general readers but happen to be vended by homeless or
at risk.  The Big issue was started (like chicago's StreetWise) as a
vehicle to help empower the homeless and get them a job selling
something--the publication--and eventually move them on to more job
training. I was involved in the formation of the North American Street
NewsPaper assn. representing U.S. and Canadian (maybe eventually
Mexican) publications by, for and about the homeless population of
various areas (mostly urban). Anyway, all this is more than you need to
know.  but I'd appreciate if you could find out about the person or the
paper.  These enterprises are ofjten shoestring enterprises that fizzle
out but I'd love to get my hands on a sample copy of what was being
produced.  Any help you can provide would be appreciated.  Thanks.
On another matter, Fulbright info. can be accessed at
http://e.usia.gov/education

cheers, Norma

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