 
Contact Address:
Gambia Food & Nutrition Association
Banjul
area
GAFNA House head office
Bakau
Kombo Coastal Road
PO Box 111, Banjul
Kanifing Municipality, Ksmd
The Gambia, West Africa
Tel no: +220 4496745 / 4496742 / 4496741
Fax:
4496743
Email: gafna@qanet.gm
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Information:
GAFNA, which was established in June 1986, is a registered
non-governmental organisation aiming to improve the
quality of food consumed by the general population and
to promote food
security via a self-sufficient society in The Gambia.
To this end it's operations are spread around the country
in the form of around 120 Health
and Nutrition Program Centres (CMCS) which are operated
by the communities themselves in the form of Community
Management Committees whose membership is elected from
their region's vicinity.
Current & Past Activities & Schemes:
• Food
Preservation & Processing
The program was funded by Village Aid UK and ran from
1996 to 2000. The emphasis of the scheme was to enhance
the productivity and skills
of rural women and to minimize post harvest horticultural
wastage. As a result 14 groups spread out in Gambia
received training workshops on producing tomato puree,
fruit preserves such as jam production, pickles and
sauces.
• Peer Counsellors
Program
Along with it collaborative partners i.e. the Ministry
of Health & Social Welfare, GM/CRS/ and
the local CMCS it initiated a maternal / childhood scheme
called the Child Survival Programme which targets the
nutritional requirements of mothers and enhancing the
feeding practices of children and infants.
 The
project's main focus is targeted at children from birth
to three years old in 10 villages dotted in the Central
River Region, the South and North banks. Mothers of
malnourished children, older brothers & sisters,
grandmothers and fathers would also be welcome.
• Safety Net Project
Early this century it had been assessed that people
in certain regions of The Gambia and Senegal suffered
from acute and yearly food insecurity (especially during
the rainy season) due to bad financial access to, and
reduced availability of, food. As a result USAID aid
program called Development Activity Program (DAP 2)
was initiated to address these underlying food security
issues through the promotion of sesame seed cultivation
on farms and food safety nets.
The aims of the DAP II projects was better food distribution
to susceptible individuals and to ensure that institutions
can manage safety net interventions for vulnerable groups
and to scrutinise and promote food safety nets in the
Central River Region (CRR) and Upper River Region (URR).
Food rations were delivered to 1,500 people identified
as vulnerable for half a year at the community level
and 1,500 received rations for a year at the institutional
level. The project ran for 5 years in the form of wheat
soy mix, lentils, refined vegetable cooking oil and
corn.
Qualifying individuals received their commodities through
Charitable Organizations, Government Health Centres
and Community Management Committees.
• Refugee
Assistance Programme
The UNHCR funded
project which was executed by the Gambia Food and Nutrition
Association has two main aims: the urban caseload comprised
of mostly Liberian refugees as well as a few from other
African countries such as Somalia, Ethiopia, Burundi
and the (now closed) Bambally Refugee Camp aiding refugees
who fled north into The Gambia from the Casamance area
of Senegal. Aid took the form of food, health, education,
potable water, sanitation and crop growing.
They also received micro-finance in order to pursue
sustained self-employment as a means of income generation
and to be less reliant on humanitarian assistance.
• HIV / Aids
The aim of the project which began in October 2004 and
ran for 15 months was to fight HIV / Aids via community
participation. It was funded by The Gambia Food and
Nutrition Association (GAFNA) and the National
Aids Secretariat (NAS) under the Rapid Response
Project (HARP). It was carried out in the Upper River
Region in 25 target villages.
Its objectives was to raise the level of access to advisory
and counselling services about HIV and other STDs, to
increase the capacity of help groups and local institutions,
to improve the nutritional wellbeing of vulnerable groups
such as the chronically ill, children and mothers.
Organisational Structure:
GAFNA's structure is made up of their membership, seven
board of directors, director of administration /
finance, evaluation and monitoring, programmes, project
and their support staff.
The institutions activities are in food and nutrition,
health, education, humanitarian assistance, community
development and disaster management and relief.
Directions:
Behind the Independence Stadium scoreboard in Bakau. |
