The Dampha Foundation is an NGO which was founded in 2001. The NGO came about to fight against the violations of women’s rights in the rural areas. From 2003 to date, it has been the leading NGO in helping women to realize their potentials. We believe that investing in women fundamentally strengthens families and societies. Our Women's Empowerment Program develops women's leadership, strengthens women's organizations, increases women's rights and ensures their personal security, and creates new political and economic opportunities for women across The Gambia specifically the rural areas. Our current project plan is to uplift the women’s political power in Lamin Koto, C.R.R. this project will last for 5 years starting from 2012 to 2017.
The goals of the organization are:
➢ Promotion of women’s political rights as basis for democracy strengthening. ➢ Information dissemination, ➢ Creating a platform for civil solidarity expression and collective actions for women.
The objectives are:
➢ Attract attention and increase awareness of women’s political rights in the Lamin Koto village. ➢ Attract wide circles to support women’s forum. ➢ Assist to develop networks for cooperation between organizations for providing consolidated support to advance women to power positions. ➢ Assist to develop a positive image for women -leaders and advocate for women-leadership in local areas.
Political rights are those rights by which citizens are given share in the political life of their community including that of the management of government. They generally consist of the following rights: right to vote, right to be elected, right to public offices, right to petition, right to criticize government, right to residence, right to protection while staying abroad, right to public meeting etc.
However, we (Dampha Foundation) define women empowerment as the means and ways of protecting and improving the rights of women in all