Echange
Gambie Limousine Sante and Education (EAGLISE), a charitable organization based
in France in partnership with Lions Club of Cape Point, Tuesday handed over a
container with medical and educational equipment worth 35,000 Euros to Bafrow
Medical Clinic.
In
a separate engagement, the team also presented three hundred and fifty Euros to
four female students of SOS Children’s Technical Senior School who participated
in the international French writing competition.
The
three students who completed and submitted their final write-up essay each went
home with one hundred Euros, while the fourth student, who could not complete
but went halfway, received fifty Euros.
Speaking
at the handing over of the medical items, the Director of Bafrow Medical
Clinic, Mrs Fatou Waggeh, expressed appreciation on behalf of her management
and staff for the donated medical and educational materials.
She
expressed her gratitude in receiving the EAGLISE team from France, describing
them as partners in development.
She
said they been working very closely with Bafrow since 2003.
Mrs
Waggeh said these are a group of people that are working very hard in France,
in ensuring that they mobilise medical equipment and agricultural materials for
the people of The Gambia.
“We are very grateful to have them as
partners, who have a heart for the development of our motherland The Gambia.”
This
time around, the items would be distributed to Bafrow Clinic and Operation Save
the Children Foundation, she announced.
Also
speaking at the presentation of prizes to the four students at the SOS
Children’s Technical School grounds was Roheyatou Dibba, a beneficiary, who
expressed appreciation and gratitude on behalf of the students for the kind
gesture of the team to Gambian students.
Thevenot
Serge, chairman of EAGLISE, said this is an international organisation that has
been operating for more than one hundred years, which they celebrated this
year.
He
said they proposed last year that an international French writing competition
should be organised in schools, in which The Gambia was included.
This
was the first school that has received such physical cash, all geared towards
encouraging the students to take up French as a subject in their syllabus.
According
to him, the intention is to ensure that it becomes an annual activity to
support the students in their learning and education, particularly regarding
the French subject.
He
said his organisation would love to continue working with them and their
teachers at the international level.
“We
hope that next time, the boys will participate.”
Samuel
Turay, the principal of SOS Children’s Gherman Technical Senior Secondary
School, said he was grateful to the donors and advised the students to be serious
with the French subject.
He
assured the donors that the money would be used for its intended purpose.
Giving
an overview of how the organisation came into being, Ousman Badjie, counterpart
in The Gambia, said the partnership came through Momodou Tangara, who was then doing a PhD in
France, and was also the former minister of Foreign Affairs, Higher Education
and now Gambia’s permanent representative to the United Nations.
He said it all started with the Lions Club of
BELAC, which is located in the city of France, where the donors came from.
Mr
Badjie explained that the Lions Club is an international organisation and a
charitable humanitarian group, which encouraged a few Gambians to establish a
Lions Club in The Gambia, which they did, and the name is Lions Club of Cape
Point.
He
said this was not the first time that these philanthropists have been
supporting The Gambia, and a result of their frequent support led them to form
an organisation called “EAGLISE”.
Since
then every year they would send a container to help the health and education
sectors, Badjie added.
