In Gambia, the African Network for Information and Action against Drugs (RAID) , recently trained over 20 of its volunteers on monitoring of the implementation of the 2016 Tobacco Control Act tools.RAID Gambia is a registered non-governmental organisation which champions a number of causes such as anti-smoking, substance abuse, illicit drugs trafficking, Aids / HIV, anti baby abandoning and teen pregnancy. The organisation was formed after the realisation that substance abuse and illegal drugs trafficking posed a detrimental effect on public health and the socio-economic structure.
Held in Mandinaba in Kombo East, the volunteers were from different youth organizations and associations in the West Coast Region. RAID officials expressed optimism that the training would avail the Agency and its aligned Government partners the opportunity to assess and be able to measure the effectiveness of the Act on the use of tobacco substance in the country.
Executive Director of RAID-The Gambia, Sambujang Conteh said the Agency has been in existence for almost two decades now and has implemented series of livelihood projects and socio-economic programs in the country.Conteh indicated that they have been staunch advocates against rural-urban drift, conduct trafficking in person awareness campaigns, child marriage, illegal migration and drug abuse and trafficking.
The Agency and its working partners’, he said, seek to have effective implementation of the Act which is drastically reducing the use of substance abuse in the country.On the role of youth participation in the fight against the illegal tobacco practice, Mr. Conteh reiterated that the enactment of the Tobacco Control Act in the country can be fully realized when everyone support and fully engage in the execution of the law.
Lamin Jammeh, regional program coordinator in West Coast Region said one of the most the targets of the Agency in the fight against the unlawful use and sale of tobacco in the country is to have a complete comprehensive Tobacco Control Act, which he said, is set for implementation before end of December.Mr. Jammeh said The Gambia is being ranked as the first country within the African sub-region in the fight against Tobacco, saying his organisation has been instrumental in the past by engaging authorities to have a complete comprehensive document on the control of Tobacco substance in the country.
He acknowledged that West Coast Region is one of the most strategic areas in the country where trafficking of all kind of drugs pass through, adding that has even made the Act to capture border management issues in an effort to curb the passage of drugs in and outside the country. “I think when this Act is fully implemented the problem of having borders in serving as entry points for illegal importation of Tobacco drugs in the country will be well controlled and be a thing of the past,” he said.
RAID Partners with the various government ministries and international, multi-lateral agencies such as the ministries of health, local government, the Interior, WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF
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