Sight-Savers donates laptop to nominated NAM

Sight-Savers International-The Gambia, yesterday handed over a laptop with accessories to Hon. Ndey Yassin Secka Sallah, a physically challenged nominated National Assembly Member.

The laptop, according to the donor, would go a long way in assisting her in the execution of her duties as National Assembly Member.

Sight-Savers is an organisation aimed at helping people with disabilities especially those with permanent sight loss.

Speaking at the presentation ceremony held at the GOVI Resources Centre in Kanifing, the Regional Director of Sight-savers in West Africa, Bakary Marong, said they have been working for over 60 years to help and improve the lives of people with disabilities, particularly those who have permanent sight loss.

‘’We need to change the lives of people at risk of sight loss for the long term to make the world a fairer place for people with disabilities,’’ he said.

Mr Marong explained that Sight-savers also help to support the systematic inclusion and participation of people with disabilities in the health, education, political and social sectors by government, civil society and development agencies.

He thanked President Adama Barrow for nominating Hon. Ndey Secka Sallah.

For his part, the Executive Director of the Gambia Organisation of the Visually Impaired (GOVI), Mamout Touray, said the gesture would enhance the efforts of the National Assembly member to enable her function efficiently and effectively.

‘’With sponsors like Sight-Savers, we will be able to positively compete with anybody,’’ he challenged.

He added that the donation was in the right direction towards making the physically impaired independent.

Once they are able to get the materials to be independent of others, they would then be able to play their role in society like any other person, he added.

Mr Touray commended Sight-savers for the gesture and called on other donors to come to their aid in serving the physically impaired.

GOVI was established in 1991 by an amalgamation of the Gambia Society for the Blind and the Gambia Association of the Blind.

Hon. Ndey Yassin Secka Sallah is one of the founding members of the organisation. She, until her recent nomination by President Adama Barrow as a National Assembly Member, worked at Radio Gambia as a Producer.