US$400,000 for PEGEP

The President’s Empowerment for Girls Education Project (PEGEP) received a cheque for US$400,000 from the Republic of China on Taiwan.

The sum was the second subvention this year, which was pumped into the project by Taiwan, after it presented D300,000 in June. This sum runs to meet PEGEP’s 2007 budget of US$700,000.
Dr Patrick Chang, Taiwanese Ambassador to The Gambia, presented the cheque to Ms Teneng Jaiteh, Secretary to the Cabinet, yesterday at a ceremony held in her office at the State House in Banjul.

Handing over the cheque, Ambassador Chang, paid tribute to the importance President Jammeh attaches to education, especially for girls. Dr Chang advanced this vision as crucial, saying that girls have the potential to become the “solid foundation” for national development. He disclosed that about US$4 million has been already put into the project by Taiwan.

The Taiwanese Diplomacy Chief in Banjul used the opportunity to remind the gathering about Taiwan’s support for the country’s education programmes, culminating in the granting of scholarships to 25 Gambian students currently reading petroleum at the National Taipei University of Technology (NTUT).

He said another batch of 25 Gambian students will leave for Taiwan in September to study ICT at the NTUT, noting that this will be preceded by the dispatch of 13 Gambians, 12 of whom will undertake MA programmes in various fields, while one of them will undergo Ph.D programme. He added that another group of four students will do undergraduate programmes.
Ambassador Chang then expressed his admiration with PEGEP and then reaffirmed Taipei’s continuous support.

For her part, Ms Teneng Jaiteh, Secretary to the Cabinet, who later hand-delivered the cheque to Mustapha Saine, Project Coordinator of PEGEP, thanked President Chen Sui-bien of Taiwan, through Ambassador Chang for Taipei’s support to the development programmes of The Gambia. Ms Jaiteh alluded that the emergence of the project - initiated by President Jammeh - has ensured accessibility to quality education for girls. She said the project was necessitated by the need to empower girls, saying that it has fetched continuity for girls in education in the country.

The Secretary to the Cabinet, Jaiteh assured Ambassador Chang that The Gambia cherishes its relation with Taiwan and then declared that “we would want it to grow from strength to strength”.

PEGEP’s Coordinator Mustapha Saine, who gave the vote of thanks, informed the ceremony that the project has also ensured retention for girls in the school system and also racketed girls’ enrolment in both Region 1 and Region 2. Mr. Saine then commended President Jammeh on his foresight in education and thanked Taiwan for its generous support. “Regardless of whatever you take to measure, his interest in nation-building is way beyond that,” he said.
Ebrima Camara, Permanent Secretary at the Office of the President, chaired the ceremony.