Gambia YMCA Youth Share ECOWAS Training Experience

I am Elody Mendy from Manduar Village in the West Coast Region of The Gambia. I am 24 years old and come from an extended family and still live with both my parents. I completed my primary and secondary education in Brikama, West Coast Region.

After completing my secondary education, due to a poor family background, I had to remain at home. I was not doing anything other than helping my mother with household chores despite my willingness to further my education. If you don't have skills, I won't say you don't have anything... but you have little. If you have skills, life becomes easy and you determine your own future.

I enrolled as a beneficiary in The Gambia YMCAs BLF Funded Project in Life Skills and Enterprise Development for Disadvantaged and Marginalised Young People in The Gambia. Through this I pursued a one-year training in Food Preservation. I completed my training in 2009 and since then have been involved in private catering on a small scale.

Additionally, The YMCAs gave me some entrepreneurship and business development training which positioned me strategically as a young entrepreneur, qualified to access both soft loans and start up grants.

In October 2013, The YMCA selected me to be amongst the six young entrepreneurs to represent The Gambia in Benin for a One Month ECOWAS intensive training.

The ECOWAs experience has changed my life and my skills! I have been adequately exposed to the concept of entrepreneurship and business concepts.

Previously, The Gambia only saw poor quality imported bathing soap but now I can make all types of good soap which are recommended for better skin and hygiene, for example: medicated soap, cucumber soap, carrot soap and aloe-vera soap etc.

My intention is to start something as soon as possible as a measure of putting into practice what I have learnt in order to perfect my product. Additionally I intend to share the skills with my fellow youth in The Gambia and those at the YMCAs Skills Training Centre to ensure my skills and experience trickle down and give back to my nation.

I will train other youths and at the same time my family and local community will be exposed to the various products that will be produce through my work. Most importantly, I am confident now to use my own product and desist from buying soap again.

I wish to thank ECOWAS and The Gambia Ministry of Youth and Sports and want to commend the YMCAs for trusting me to represent them.

By Elody Mendy, The Gambia YMCA

Source: Joseph Peacock, Deputy
National General Secretary, The Gambia YMCA

The Africa Alliance of YMCAs (AAYMCA) is a leading pan African youth development network on the continent, representing national movements in 20 countries, 16 of which are very active. The first YMCA in Africa was established in Liberia in 1881, and the AAYMCA was founded in 1977 as the umbrella body for all national movements on the continent. http://www.africaymca.org or https://www.facebook.com/AfricaYMCA