By Yero S. Bah
The voluntary work of Red Cross volunteers in the Gambia is an open secret especially in this Covid-19 period, where most the burials of those who succumbed to the global virus are done by its volunteers since the first fatality case was registered in this country.
One such volunteer is Mr. Abdoulie Gaye, a 23-year-old graduate of Kotu Senior Secondary School who has the ambition to voluntarily offer support to the needy in society right from his childhood.
In an interview with Mansa Banko Online, Gaye, who is the Secretary General of Serekunda Central Red Cross Link, explained that joining the humanitarian organization was never his intention as he was wrongly informed about the mandate of the humanitarian movement, noting people associated the organization with “partying and dancing”. But when Gaye later joined the humanitarian bandwagon, he came to realize the truth about it, as, according to him, he crossed paths with the ‘Fearless Red Cross volunteers’.
“As an aspiring person who believes in helping humanity, I decided to join in 2016,” he told this medium, adding serving humanity had been his priority since childhood. He realized one way of giving back to society is to join the Red Cross movement so as to contribute his part, he disclosed.
As Secretary General Gaye pointed out, his Link, founded by some prominent Gambian volunteers in the early 1970s, is under the Gambia Red Cross Society (GRCS), and it’s the oldest Link in the Gambia. Boasting over 600 members, Gaye dissects that out of these people, 250 to 300 are active volunteers as of now, who are between the ages of 5 and 45, thus creating different levels of memberships.
Gaye continued that the mandate of the link is to conduct trainings for members, rehabilitate and equip the capacity of volunteers of all categories for a better link, adding they frequently prepare volunteers by conducting presentations, organizing camps where First-Aid skills are taught; Disaster Risk Reduction; Sexual Health and Gender-Based Violence as well as drama lessons are delivered to trainees.
The SK Central Link chief argued that the successes of the link are numerous since it was able to run many activities successfully such as the invitation of their ballet dance group to Coco Ocean Hotel by the President of the Gambia in one of the state functions.
Meanwhile, the Link is not without challenges, as he divulged that “lack of funds” to run their activities as expected, the discrimination of their volunteers as well as the engagement of some of their members into other activities, are hurdles the link continues to face.
The young humanitarian worker indicated that since the registration of the coronavirus in the Gambia, SK Central Link volunteers had successfully shot a video on the deadly virus that’s ravaging the globe, and they would be putting it on social media to raise awareness on the pandemic; while also conducting community sanitization campaigns on the dangers and impacts, and engaging various stakeholders. The Secretary General further informed that they are also involved in the burial of bodies of deceased persons with [suspected or] coronavirus disease.
However, he held that the Gambian attitude towards the coronavirus “is pathetic”, lamenting that most citizens are in denial of the existence of the virus in the country. Furthermore, he opined that [some] Gambians have politicalized the coronavirus largely due to ignorance.
The Red Cross Link leader believes before Gambians could eradicate this bug, citizens must fight it head-on together as one unit, without which, he cautioned, disaster looms in this country since the health sector is “so fragile and lamed”.
The young volunteer opined also that youth in the Gambia would argue about everything as they highlight problems but would not proffer solutions, charging “whenever you oppose something, one must provide an alternative”.
SG Gaye rounded off by intimating that “problem without a solution is yet to be a problem”.
