Ndey Tapha Sosseh Gambian journalist and former President of the Gambia Press Union (GPU) has launched an online monthly women’s magazine called the Women’s Tourch www.thewomenstorch.com. Ndey who resides in Mali has been working with the West African Journalists Association (WAJA) from 2010 to 2016 as head of capacity Development in Africa. She has been very instrumental in advocating for press freedom, women’s and Human Rights in Africa.
In a formal letter to Gainako Ndey wrote “I write to formally introduce the Women’s Torch website www.thewomenstorch.com, a monthly online news magazine which is currently under construction. I intend to launch by end October 2016. The bi-lingual news website will focus on major issues affecting women such as health; economics; politics; rights etc in the region”. Ndey said after being the head of Capacity Development of the WAJA she had first hand experience. Below is the letter sent out to the press for this announcement..
Having headed the capacity development aspect of the West African Journalists Association from 2010 to mid-2016, I have had first-hand experience of the difficulties related to bringing women’s stories to the headlines irrespective of the angle of the story.Upon my departure, I intend to build on a personal initiative that I developed, Women Reporting Women, which focused on training women journalists in West Africa as trainers on gender sensitive reporting.The project had trained 28 senior women journalists as trainers and a further five hundred sensitized on reporting through the gender lens.
Despite such a huge achievement, I leave WAJA still feeling that many issues I would have loved to influence, including enhanced relationships between journalists and decision makers in the news rooms to enable well written, adequately researched stories on women in West Africa make their way to our front pages is still largely lacking.
In West Africa, despite several initiatives and increasing resources to enhance and improve on the status of women and girls, implementation seems to wane with very little visible impact.The same goes for the media, despite training, the provision of resources and support, the coverage of women and gender issues, media owners, due to the commercialization of the industry continue to ignore stories concerning women, told by women.
As one of the privileged West African women journalists who has had several opportunities —through training and work experience – and the ability to analyse information in perspectives that concern women, I should be able to translate concerns and issues that I have worked on so hard to responsibly educate, inform and stimulate debate in a platform solely dedicated to the coverage of women’s issues.
The main objective of The Women’s Torch is to have well researched, carefully crafted articles which seriously address in innovative ways women’s stories. The main innovation of our site would be our ability to link our women’s stories to trending, current news.
The Women’s Torch will offer women journalists (and gender sensitive male journalists) in the region a platform, alongside their local media to sustain the coverage of women’s interest stories. The site will also serve as the “platform” for the West African woman’s voice; as source of reference for mainstream West African media interested in covering women’s issues.
Apart from reporting, the website also intends to attract and empower West African women by creating an interactive page on the site for women to share their experiences in relation to stories told.
The site will use journalism as a development tool to educate, empower and employ women journalists in the region to produce high-quality local news coverage that elevates regional awareness and ignites behavioral, social and policy changes on issues affecting West African women.
Partnership:
The site will also offer links of interesting, serious partner news sites, as such I request that you give me the authority to include the link of www.gainako.com.
Ndey Tapha Sosseh
Managing Editor
Editor’s note: Gainako congratulates Ndey for coming up with this great initiative. Ndey Tapha has been a great resource for African and Gambian media in particular. She has always championed press freedom and strongly advocated for respect restoration of Democracy and rule of law in the Gambia. Gainako is privileged to partner with Ndey and the Women tourch magazine and can’t wait to see amazing work she will bring to shine light on Women Affairs.