One Gunjur Carnival, a group of youths in the sprawling coastal settlement of Gunjur in the Kombo South region of the Gambia today presented medication drugs to the Gunjur Health post as part of their efforts to giving back to their community.
Receiving the medicines, Haddy Fadera, Nurse in charge of the health post thanked One Gunjur Carnival for the kind gesture and assured the group that the drugs will be fully utilised as intended. Also speaking at the presentation, Public Health Officer, Haddy Faye commended the group for the donation highlighting that the maternity ward will immensely benefit from the medicine especially for women immediately after child birth. Receiving the drugs, Ms Faye said: “HB12 haemoglobin syrup is very important in the RT areas likewise at the OPD. It is a blood tonic which is used for antenatal with anaemia or patients with anaemia. Presently, we don’t have any of HB12 syrup here, and the Diclofenac is a painkiller which is used basically for patients without ulcers”. The medicines which include amoxicillin, Nifedipine, anti-biotic were purchased from the proceeds of the One Gunjur Carnival 2019.
Ms Faye thanked the donors on behalf of the staff of Gunjur Health Centre and Public Health Department, noting that the gesture is a very important one as the government alone cannot do it all. “These drugs you brought here today are very important especially for antenatal as pregnant women are usually anaemic when they arrive at our facility, so with this imitative we are very delightful and hope that it is going to be a continuous thing, so on behalf of entire facility thank you very much” concluded the public health officer.
For his part, Yusupha Senko Touray who is a member of the One Gunjur Carnival spoke on behalf of his group and indicated that they have been running the carnival for two years and because of the massive support from the community in making the events successful, they discussed and agreed that part of the profit realised from the event should be ploughed back into the community. His words: “ having considered different areas in the community where we can support, we narrowed down on sourcing the much needed drugs for the Gunjur Health Centre as this facility is used by every section of the community and the fact that there is a shortage of medicine at the facility means that the impact of our donation would be much more effective”. Mr Touray concluded by assuring the health centre that this gesture will be a continuous process and urged other organisations in the community to join One Gunjur Carnival in supporting the health centre as the government alone cannot do it, emphasising the importance of a healthy community.
One Gunjur Carnival was established about three years ago and staged the 3rd Edition of the carnival from 30th to 2nd December 2019