Fellow Gambians and Friends of The Gambia,

 

Please allow us once again to give you a brief update on the activities of the New Gambia Movement. We are pleased to announce that our membership has just hit the 200 mark and members have listed their countries of residence as The Gambia, Senegal, UK, USA, the Netherlands, Norway, France, Germany, Belgium, Canada, Australia, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Scotland, Cyprus, Sweden, Taiwan, Venezuela, Italy, Ireland, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Turks and Caicos Islands, Luxembourg, China, Switzerland, Japan, and Czech Republic. Below is a brief summary of some of our activities so far this year.

 

Registration

 

We are pleased to announce that we have successfully registered the New Gambia Movement as a civil society organization in The Gambia. This means that we are now a legally constituted entity in our country and can carry out our activities.

 

Bank Accounts

 

The NGM has opened Bank accounts in The Gambia, the UK and the USA. We also have a PayPal account on our website (www.newgambia.org). This will facilitate our financial transactions especially by making it easy for members to pay their subscriptions and/or donate to the Movement. Non-members who wish to donate to the Movement may also do so via our bank accounts or PayPal. Financial updates will be sent to all members once in a while showing our balances and the sources of our funds, including the names of members who have paid their subscriptions and/or donated. Unless otherwise requested, the names of non-members who donate to the NGM will also be disclosed.

 

April 10-11 Commemoration

 

During the recent commemoration of the student massacres of April 10-11 2000 by the ousted Jammeh dictatorship, the New Gambia Movement donated $3000 to the April 10-11 Memorial Foundation. Dr. Pierre Gomez our National Organizing Secretary was invited to give a speech at one of the events held to mark the occasion. Dr. Gomez's speech included introducing and explaining to the audience the mission of the New Gambia Movement.

 

Feed the Family Project

 

We are pleased to report that our Feed the Family Project is recording admirable success. On March 4, 2017 our team on the ground paid visits to the Serekunda Central Mosque and the Sisters of Charity offices at Bakoteh where we donated several items to support the humanitarian work of these two institutions. In April, as Christians prepared to observe Good Friday, the Movement donated several items to St. Anthony's Church in Kololi. All our activities so far were covered by our national newspapers including Foroyaa, the Daily Observer, The Point and The Standard. (http://www.newgambia.org/ngm-media-coverage).  The Feed the Family Project currently has a few charitable activities planned for the upcoming month of Ramadan. 

The Feed the Family Project is an ongoing and very important part of our vision of turning The Gambia into a Family Nation. The NGM considers all Gambians as belonging to one family and will do whatever we can to help all family members regardless of religious, political, ethnic or any other affiliation. We very much appreciate any support from members and non-members alike to help us actualize the Gambian Family Nation.

 

Heal the Family Project

 

In the face of the daunting challenges facing The Gambia's health sector which range from poor physical facilities, lack of basic in-house necessities like beds and drugs, the almost total absence of medical screening facilities at RVTH and other health Centers, the New Gambia Movement recently decided to launch a Heal the Family Project headed by Dr. Surahata Ceesay. Under this project, Dr. Ceesay will lead our efforts in working with hospitals and international organizations to help provide medical supplies, health screening machines, volunteer medical personnel from abroad, and periodic training for Gambian medical personnel on the ground, among other things. The Heal the Family Project is another ambitious and potentially challenging venture designed to help improve the health and lives of members of the Gambian Family Nation.

 

Recently, members of our team on the ground noticed that some youths in Banjul were cleaning the gutters with their bare hands, with no gloves, no nose-masks, and no boots. As a pilot Heal the Family Project initiative, the New Gambia Movement decided to chip in and donate a few items that will make that work easier for the youths and help protect them from potentially serious injury or from contracting diseases as they set about cleaning the Banjul gutters. We are therefore donating the following items to this particular group of Banjul youths within the next couple of weeks:

 

Three (3) Wellington Boots

One (1) pack of gloves

Three (3) rakes

One (1) pack of nose masks (50 pieces)

One (1) roll of heavy duty refuse sacks

 

We will continue to stay engaged with these and other youths at home and will chip in whenever possible to contribute our quota as members of the Gambian Family Nation.

 

The Gambilondi Research Project

 

As part of our mission of educating and empowering the Gambian Family Nation and cognizant of the role information and information gathering plays in national development, the New Gambia Movement is initiating the Gambilondi Research Project. The project will focus on the production, storage, and dissemination of knowledge on Gambian history, politics and culture. Under the leadership of Dr. Bala Saho, the New Gambia Movement’s Director of Research and Documentation, the Gambilondi project will start with conducting research in the flowing areas:

 

The Jammeh Archives: Research and documentation of information related to former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh and his government between 1994 and 2016. This work will consist mostly of archival research and oral interviews.

 

Archival research:

To document Jammeh’s speeches – by him or about him.

To collect copies of all the decrees passed by the AFPRC between 1994 and 1996

To examine media reports on all major events that happened during the Jammeh era, particularly focusing on circumstances surrounding the deaths and disappearances of Gambian citizens between 1994 and 2016.

 

Oral Interviews: To interview people associated with Jammeh and those affected by his reign.

 

Gambia’s Spiritual Leaders: Research and documentation on the biographies of our country’s religious and spiritual heritage. Starting with prominent Muslim and Christian leaders of the recent past across the country, this sub-component of the Gambilondi project will produce biographies of our spiritual leaders for possible publication into books. The research team invites members of the Movement and the general public to help identify as many spiritual leaders as possible for research and documentation.

 

Conclusion

 

Finally, our Leadership Team met for the second time on Sunday, May 7 to welcome new members and discuss a number of important issues.  We thank all members for lending their name and support to this important initiative. We are just starting. We know that monumental challenges lie ahead. But we are not at all intimidated by the scope or size of these challenges. We are fully committed and determined to accomplish our ultimate mission of transforming The Gambia into a family nation of politically enlightened and empowered citizens. Through the Feed the Family, Heal the Family, and Gambilondi Research projects, we are laying the foundation and taking the baby steps needed to work resolutely towards the actualization of our ultimate objective. Moving forward, we need all hands on deck. We are totally convinced that together we can do it.

 

If you are interested in the NGM, please read our mission and join the Movement on our website www.newgambia.org. All Gambians and friends of The Gambia are welcome to join us.

 

Thank you all for reading.

 

Warm regards,

The Leadership Team

 

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