By Bakary Touray Jr
The West African Network for Peace Building, in short WANEP, had been taking giant steps to making the Gambia free from the deadly coronavirus-{a positive case has now been confirmed}.
The Network manifested its solid position with the donation of detergents, soap containers, hand saniitizers and bucks to schools within the Kanifing Municipal Council.
The schools that have benefited from the first package were Methodist Special School for Children with learning difficulties, the Gambia Organization for the Visually Impaired (GOVI) School, St. John’s School for the Deaf and the SOS Children Village School in Bakoteh.
The National Network Coordinator of WANEP-The Gambia, Madam Salama Njie, said our mandate is to promote and maintain peace.
“Protect yourself and families, because it is only with good health that guarantees learning. It is just a token due to our financial muscles and we will help you whenever the resources are within our reach,” remarked Njie.
WANEP, she added, is a peace building network with its Headquarters in Ghana and currently has physical presentation in all the West African countries.
She echoed that without peace there cannot be sustainable development, and with the coronavirus, “we deem it wise to help our Gambian brothers and sisters” in various schools to prevent themselves from the effects of the deadly disease. “We believe that health ensures quality learning atmosphere for the students and teachers,” the WANEP official stated.
Head teacher of Methodist Special School for Children with learning difficulties, Ms. Lucy Sarfo, argued that the donation manifests the concerns of WANEP with health and learning crusades of the children and teacher, as learning is guaranteed with a healthy environment.
“This will help us greatly in protecting ourselves against the coronavirus. This will be used as part of our health education and the significance of having a clean and healthy nation and people. Thank you for your help; that demonstrates that you have our welfare at heart”, she said.
Mr. Modou S. Badgie, Headmaster of GOVI School, expressed delight with the donation, saying;
“I was pondering how to get some of these materials for our students. This has come at a time that it is definitely needed”.
Mr. Daniel Mendy, Principal of St. John’s School for Deaf, was grateful and surprised with the move, and stressed that the items would help them prevent themselves against the coronavirus, as prevention is better than cure.
He challenged his students to extend the information on the disease to their parents with a view to helping them protect against coronavirus.
Dr. Adelard Ngabonziza, Deputy National Director of SOS Children’s Village, informed the donation would help them to fulfill their current plan and strategy developed to prevent themselves and students from coronavirus.
Expressing gratitude to WANEP for the initiative, Dr. Ngabonziza believed it would help the country in the fight to prevent the coronavirus in the country.
