Caritas Gambia and Future-In-Our Hands (FIOH) have both received 23 motorcycles and three vehicles from the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) as part of an ongoing project to boost education, food security and child nutrition in The Gambia.

Development Diaries reports that the donation worth almost U.S$200,000 is designed to support the implementation of field activities of a five-year food, education and child nutrition project funded by the United States Department of Agriculture.

The project is aimed at providing nutritional support in schools to enhance access, promote retention, minimise school dropout, improve performance, and promote healthy growth and development of children.

The project is being implemented in 186 schools in four regions (Kanifing Municipality and Banjul, North Bank Region, Central River Region North and South and Upper River Region).

Caritas Gambia received 16 motorcycles and one vehicle while FIOH received seven motorcycles and two vehicles which will serve as vital logistical assets, facilitating the mobility of project staff at the field level to reach and serve beneficiary schools.

Caritas Gambia will mainly implement the school feeding component of the project, while FIOH will implement mostly the literacy aspect.

Malnutrition is a major health issue in the West African country as four of the seven regions of the country have about eight percent of the population being food insecure or highly vulnerable to food insecurity, and the most vulnerable groups are women and children.

Available data indicates that food insecurity increased from eight percent in 2016 to 13.4 percent in 2021.

Also, despite the country increasing number of enrolment of children in schools, it recorded about 50,000 out-of-school children in 2021, according to the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).

Photo source: The Point