Suma Jadama of the state-owned Gambia Radio and Television (GRTS) has been appointed by the United States senate-approved funded project, the Millennium Challenge Corporation MCC Gambia Compact Development program, as lead outreach and public engagement specialist responsible for media and communications.
Jadama, a trained Journalist and GRTS Principal Producer, will lead the MCC media and visibility outreach programs. The five-year project is headed by a veteran project administrator Mr. Sheriff Yunus Hydara.
Mr. Jadama, who holds a Master of Science Degree MSc in International Relations & Diplomacy, Bachelor of Arts In English and Political with Honours, has also received extensive junior, middle, and senior-level journalism training across different countries and continents, including Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Canadian based Human Rights Journalism organization called Journalists For Human Rights JHR where he serves as one of its regional, sub-regional, and national trainers since 2019 to date.
Mr. Jadama, described by journalists and stakeholders as an excellent journalist, communicator, and trainer, has fantastic interpersonal skills with episodic memory and arguably knows and understands every issue, community, norms, and values of people and society in the Gambia and beyond.
After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Jadama and his colleague news editor at the Point Newspaper, Mr. Bekai Njie, in partnership with the Canadian Based Journalists For Human Rights JHR brought a fellowship project where millions of dalasi were used to train and sponsor Gambian journalists who have produced over One thousand multimedia stories and reports on the fake news, mis, and disinformation, gender-sensitive news reporting amongst others.
Reacting to the news of his appointment, Jadama told TAT: ” I was elated to have received the electronic copy of my appointment letter during my first day in Saudi Arabia in preparation for performing Hajj, the fifth pillar of Islam. I immediately went to the prayer room to offer two obligatory rakes in returning gratitude to Allah while seeking his ultimate support to execute my mandate. Serving one’s country is a must, and I am ever willing to serve Mother Gambia till dead takes me to another world.”
Until this appointment, Suma W.Jadama served as a Communications Consultant to a German-funded Climate resilience building project called Renewable Energy Potential in the Gambia REPGam project under the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science, and Technology MOHERST through the University of the Gambia under the leadership of Professor Sidat Yaffa.
Jadama has equally presented different seminar papers, presentations for British High Commission Gambia Office on Climate Change news reporting, and training on multiple development and global governance matters at local and international levels. He has been described as one of the senior Gambian journalists who often helps government-supported projects with techniques on visibility, public engagement, awareness creation, and strategic communications. And such projects include the Large Scale Ecosystems Based Adaptation Project, fondly known as the EbA project, the defunct Constitutional Review Commission CRC, the National Disaster Management Agency NDMA, UNFPA, and Long Terms Solutions to Climate Change under the Ministry of Environment, among others.
Suma W. Jadama is expected to impactful use his academics and professional skills to holistically create an inclusive, participatory approach in attaining the objectives of Millennium Challenge Corporation’s Gambia Compact Development Program to support an enterprising education and river transport earmarked to change lives and livelihoods in the country.
His colleagues at GRTS have described Mr. Jadama as truthful, reliable, resourceful, hardworking, conscientious, innovative, pleasant, and proactive, with excellent networking plans in executing his mandates. They highlighted that his departure on would-be secondment for another national assignment would be felt at the national broadcaster while he’s equally going to help the government and Gambians tap potential in education and river Gambia.
