Senegambiagroup

Because we, in Europe, were working hard to apply money and materials for the projects in the Gambia, an NGO had to be founded there as well. In fact it was founded even before Gamrupa Europe was legalized. This because we share ownership and cooperate with many others. During one of the visits to her compound Ellen started to talk with a number of people from the village to see if they could form a "cross-section" governance of the population of Sifoe. She insists that the women of the village would be increasingly involved in the creation of plans and its implementation. Also the youth organisation of the village is involved. In 2006, GamRuPa The Gambia was founded, which means GamRuPa: Gambian Rural Poor Association. The Board members are: Lamin Camara acting as President, Lamin Badjie as Secretary and Kalifa Kanteh as Treasurer.

Ellen is also a member of the Board but she can, of course, not be present always. If she is in the Gambia then there are at least two meetings. The first to be informed on what happened in the period after she left The Gambia and all development that has been done, and the second a General meeting with all the representatives from the village or people that in one way or another, are involved in the projects.
There are also monthly meetings in which the kabilo women are informed about what has been done and the progress of the various projects. These women have full understanding of all the financial and organisational issues.That must also be because transparency specifies insight and understanding and will encourage the cooperation between the groups. Also in the Gambia new ideas are implemented slowly and we cannot solve all the problems at once. There is, fortunately, progress and we should be thankful for that. Sometimes projects are not going smoothly and we sometimes have had a tendency to stop but fortunately there is always someone from the Group of women who stand up and say ... "Whoa, what about that? I thought we were busy with development of affairs, which is not easy, it will take time, so ... let's do the work and continue; let us make it come true." Often that is the push we need at that moment to start with renewed energy to continue and, often, after a while turns out that even in such a difficult project progress will look.