By Sang Mendy
To All Addressees
Board of Trustees
Staff
Student’s Union and Students
Media Partners & Donors
Gambia Press Union & Gambia Media Support
Belated Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2020 in advance
I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to you all. It was great working with you. 2019 has been a wonderful but challenging year for us. The year under review saw MAJaC grew from a small to a big institution housing close to 200 students, majority of whom are women, want-to-become and a few untrained media practitioners. The year also saw a rise in the number of teaching staff and the formation a student union to look into the welfare of students and complement management’s efforts.
Within this year, we also registered success in terms of branding as this is reflected in the quarterly recruitment of new students. MAJaC has become a household name now. In the same year, we have forged and strengthened relations with partners. We received the representatives of Turkish Development Cooperation, US Embassy, Youth Employment Project, National Accreditation and Quality Assurance Authority among other institutions that could potentially partner with us in terms of capacity building. During these visits, we discussed possibilities of working as partners. Their visits have given us new perspectives and better understanding of how and where to cooperate with them. Hopefully, some of these possible projects will come to fruition in 2020.
We have also had more students absorbed in different workplaces as interns’ reporters, senior reporters, producers, editors and some as communication officers.
All these happened due the involvements of everyone. The board of trustees (outgoing and current), the staff, students, GPU and GAMES have been phenomenal with your guidance and support. The achievements and gains registered couldn’t have come without you. I am encouraged each time I look around, because I see a team providing moral support and a team ready to move MAJaC to the dreamland.
To the Gambia Press Union (board and staff), I say thank you for the support, trust and confidence you have in MAJaC. This is evident in your constant engagement of the academy in the area of capacity building and media development.
To the Gambia Media Support and our colleagues from Denmark. You have and will continue to be an integral part of the academy. Your contribution, support, coaching and trust in MAJaC emboldens us daily. Your presence on the ground, the mentoring and the encouragement reminds us that someone is walking by your side. I implore all members of GAMES to continue to doing so as we hope to become that renown media training institute in the sub-region.
To the staff, the journey has been rough but we withered the storm to be where we are today. The commitment displayed over the year showed that MAJaC is the future. I know that you are not taking home what you deserve due to reasons beyond our control but let us hope that 2020 brings us smiles.
To the board of directors of the academy, I thank you for the support and policy direction within the 2019.
To our media partners, we owe you a depth of gratitude for trusting in our products. We hope more media houses and other institutions would reach out for such cooperation in 2020 as we continue to produce more and more graduates fitting for newsroom work and to work as communication officers.
To the students, I congratulate and I hope that you have no regrets choosing MAJaC. Having said that, I challenge you all to work hard to acquire the knowledge, skills, experience and workplace competencies as you pursue your professional career. I urge you to demand more from the fountain of knowledge, skills and experience the teaching staff have. Always strive to get the best from them. It is only through such that we can make MAJaC an institution we’re all proud of.
I thank you all for being there for MAJaC but before I end this brief note, let me seek your forgiveness if I ever offended you knowing or unknowingly. I am just human.
Yours sincerely,
Sang Mendy
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