Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) recently donated food items to eleven villages in Jokadu District, North Bank Region of The Gambia, to mitigate the effects of last year’s crop failure.
The donated items included 300 20kg of rice, 300 5litres of oil, 300 2litres of sugar, 300 5kg of beans and 300 1.5kg of salt worth up to five hundred and sixty thousand dalasi (D560,000).
Speaking at the presentation ceremony held in Kuntai village, the board chairman of ADRA, Pastor Karamba Jassey, told the gathering the gesture is another milestone in the history of ADRA.
“ADRA is a recognised Development and Relief Agency that fosters an enabling environment through working with partners, networks and affiliates in the communities as well as partners both in and outside the country to strengthen the capacity of our communities in The Gambia and counteract the impact of poverty,” he said.
Pastor Jassey said organizations and partners such as theirs should come forward to help the country guarantee its food needs before the next planting season.
He said ADRA did act promptly to render support of food items to some three hundred families in Jokadu District of the North Bank Region when they heard government’s announcement declaring the last farming season a failure.
“We need not belabour the significance of this move. What is important to note here is that it shows that we have a government that is an embodiment of the wishes and aspirations of the people,” he said.
According to him, by complementing the government’s effort to provide food to Gambians on the brink of hunger, you are in effect helping yourself, “he said, adding that food is life.
“We therefore cannot afford to have The Gambia go short of grain; all hands must be on deck in complementing the efforts of the government to bail the country out of this looming food crisis,” he said.
“We once again applaud the efforts of the Government of The Gambia, the Office of the Governor of North Bank Region, the Chief of Jokadu District, the office of the Disaster Management of North Bank Region and the Alkalolu of the 11 beneficiary villages of Jokadu, for accepting ADRA to give this donation as our quota towards giving a smile to some three hundred families of Jokadu.”
For his part, Alhagie Jim Fatma Jobe, Chief of Jokadu, thanked ADRA for the support, adding that the donation was a big surprise to them.
Deputy Governor of NBR, Mustapha Saidy, also called on other institutions and Gambians abroad to emulate ADRA.
Other speakers on the occasion included the Regional Disaster Coordinator, Poulo Joof, the Alkalo of Kuntai, Alh. Abu Fatou Khan, who both thanked ADRA for its intervention.
Isatou Sidibeh, a beneficiary, told the gathering that life had not been easy for them since last year.
