05/09/2026
🎉 Staff Shoutout: Mariama Lisaa, Co-Founder & Founding Board Chair
Our shoutout week continues! Today, we celebrate someone whose story is Info Checked’s story: Mariama, Co-Founder, former Programme Manager, and now Founding Board Chair. She has since positioned herself as a disinformation expert and trainer on media and information literacy across Africa and beyond.
Mariama has done everything for Info Checked. Five years ago, she set out with a vision: to build The Gambia’s first fact-checking organization. From those early days as Fact Check Center-The Gambia to where Info Checked stands today, Mariama has been there every step of the way as a founder, as the Programme Manager who helped shape our work on the ground, and now as Founding Board Chair guiding our next chapter.
In her own words:
“We were more inspired by the fact that we wanted to do something new like fact-checking, seeing how people easily believed rumors during the new political dispensation. And it wasn’t going to cost us much finances as I used to say, what we need more is internet, laptops, and phones to call. When we needed to go out for research, we put together what we had and went. Most importantly, we knew we could do 80% of the work with internet, phone, and laptops.
The decision to form Fact Check Center-The Gambia through fact-checking I started, I gave back, I worked, I trained. Sometimes when I look back at how we started and where we are today, I can’t help but remember what I always tell myself: money is beside the point. The work is more important because it serves a purpose, and when that purpose is fulfilled, donors will come with time.
When I look at the young people that volunteer and believe in nothing but getting the work done, I can’t help but remember my motivation when we started. Every publication by any member of the organization is a proud moment for me.
My vision is to keep focusing on serving the purpose of providing reliable information to the public until the center gains the A international recognition that it deserves for the work we do.”
Thank you, Mariama, for your vision, leadership, and everything you’ve poured into this journey. Here’s to more milestones ahead! 🙌
