GAHC targets more needy families

As part of its efforts at helping needy families in The Gambia, the Gambian Association Houston Chapter (GAHC) based in the United States of America, has again given out to three more families, this time around, in the North Bank Region.

The families who received this latest donation are the Faye, Bah and Marong Kunda families, all in the region. They benefitted from food and non-food items including bags of rice, each worth four thousand one hundred dalasis (D4,100).

The gesture, which forms part of the association’s “Feed a Family” project launched in November last year, is also part of GAHC’s contribution to nation-building and towards alleviating poverty in the country.

In handing over the foodstuffs to the beneficiary families on behalf of Muhammed Saidykhan, president of the association, The Point Newspaper editor-in-chief Baboucarr Senghore, who is the official representative of the association in The Gambia, gave a brief background of the whole project, saying it was launched in November 2011 to help needy families.

The project, he said, seeks to provide assistance to families in rural villages who are in dire need of such basic necessities. 

Mr Senghore, who serves as trustee in identifying deserving beneficiaries for the assistance in targeted population, told the beneficiaries that the GAHC seeks to maintain this gesture as an ongoing initiative with more assistance to be delivered to selected families on a monthly basis.

“Those who may benefit from this assistance at a particular point in time range from one to three depending on the amount raised in a given month; or in cases that require special or urgent attention of substantial support, the total sum of the money may go to one family,” he said.

He however stated that the monthly amounts to be given to needy families might vary from month to month based on how much the GAHC is able to raise in a given month.

In receiving the gesture, Biran Faye, a beneficiary, commended members of the GAHC for their “timely intervention”, saying the gesture came at a time his family needed it the most.

 Faye, a 75-year-old father of six children, urged other associations to emulate the GAHC, whom he described as “good ambassadors” of The Gambia.

“We really appreciate the gesture and pray for the association for God’s guidance,” he said.

Penda Marong, also a beneficiary, thanked the GAHC for the gesture.

According to her, the gesture came as a surprise to her family, who were “in dire need of assistance”.

She also called on other associations or groups to emulate similar gestures, saying there are people in rural Gambia who really need help.