Mr. Hamadi Bah fondly Vincent, a Board member and Chairman of the Danish-Gambia Friendship Society (DGFS) based in Denmark hails from Sintet, The Gambia. Vincent is greatly involved in nation development through the DGFS, and has been working with many local communities to better their standard of living. In this documentary, Vincent walks our readers through on some of the contributions the DGFS made in the Gambia.
By Hamadi Vincent Bah, Denmark.
The DGFS Danish-Gambia friendship society was founded in 1975 by a journalist call Erik Svenson and is a registered non-governmental organization whose work includes sponsoring school children and providing basic education. They also carry out relief work in Gambia in the form of donations for wanting causes.
The organization activities includes providing medications for clinics and hospitals, clinical equipment, hospital beds clothes, household items, books, student sponsorships, equipment to primary and secondary schools and other kinds of donated materials. The organization is also involved in projects such as Malaria, animal, IT center, agriculture and more.
In 2012 we were sponsoring 1,600 students in various learning institutions around the country. I would like to thank my organization’s board of directors for a very effective and skilful work in recent years. Their hard work and dedication for Gambia and there way of handling things has been of great importance for the organization Gambia’s Friends.
Gambia’s Friends board members will do everything we can to build on the successes we have achieved both here in Denmark and in the Gambia. The Danish Gambia Friendship Association, we will continue to act together to meet the challenges and make things even better in the Gambia.
The organization has existed for more than 41 years. The association work includes Sponsorship of school children, during the 41 years the association has existed. Thanks to the Danish sponsors, the children in the Gambia had the opportunity to get an education and be able to secure themselves and their families a better future.
Another major task is the shipment of containers including school equipments and materials, hospital equipment and materials and various handicap items. I am grateful for all our loyal members, individuals and institutions for their ongoing support to the association and their work for the benefit of development and a better future for the Gambians.
Gambians are very pleased with the Gambia’s friends, (Gambia’s Venner) support and effort in trying to secure a good life and the environment for the Gambia. I thank our sister society’s chairman Amadou Njonjo Bah and our working partners Sintet Fullakunda Association for their wonderful effort for the organization. Without them, we cannot produce good result.
In 2005, my organization donated items amounting to thousands of Dalasi to the flood victims of Sinchu Madadou, Kerewan Samba Sirah and Kuntaur in Central River Division and Basse. The donated items wereclothes, beds, shoes and wheel chairs and kitchen items.
Mr. Thomas, was our container administrator for our sister society in the Gambian at the time. The donated items were vital to the maintenance and strengthening of the lives of the flood victims.
During my follow up trip to Gambia in December 2011, I visited the Gambian Red Cross representatives and I was briefed on the distribution of aid container from my organization with regards to problems of many fire disasters during the dry season and the many floods in the rainy season, and they were very grateful for our help. I was also around and visited many of the places where the Association during the years had supported with various items and I was happy to note that things were used as intended and that the help was received with great gratitude and joy of the recipients. When I travelled from Banjul to Bansang . We visited several places starting from Gambia senior secondary school to Bansang. I was companied with one of our board members Heidi Pacchiarini who was responsible for the payment of sponsorship and John Torp who donated for the renovating of Panchang clinic, Ousman Dampha our container director in the Gambia and Mr. Alieu Baraneh Bah.
On our arrival at the hospital, we met Mr. Bubacar Jammeh who was the chief executive manager at Bansang Hospital and he has been doing a good job working with us. Bansang Hospital received a 40-foot container from my organization filled with hospital equipments I asked the hospital to keep the container as a store at the hospital. We greeted Mr. Jammeh and went immediately to the container. Mr Jammeh showed us around the hospital grounds and into the various compartments. We went to the children’s ward and saw the beds, which the hospital has received from our organization.
After the tour, he invited us into his office and told us how he worked at the hospital to make things better. He said the hospital has its own directors who work closely together. Furthermore, he mentioned also that he himself was sponsored by my organization Danish Gambia friends, when he went to school. He thanked on behalf of Bansang hospital board members, the Gambian friends many times, for the huge effort Gambia-Friends has done for the hospital.
He thanked us for our help and especially for bandages, hospital beds, mattresses and other materials which are of great importance to them at that time when there were in lack of stock. He told me that Bansang Hospital is very proud of all the support the association has done for the hospital and the material they got from the Gambia-Friends are of best quality.
In addition, he also said that health is expensive especially in the Gambia, where the majority of the population is extremely poor. I thanked him also for the great effort he makes for the hospital. After a really good chat with Chief executive Mr. Jammeh, I thought that we could visit a little further up provinces to Sareh Bojo approximately 25 km from Bansang, to see how people live entirely within the country side.
Note: Rejoinder parts will follow soon.