Ilona
Foundation in collaboration with Bennie Helpt Gambia Foundation based in
Holland Friday donated medical items to the Edward Francis Small Teaching
Hospital in Banjul.
The
donated items included compressors, bandages, dressing materials, plasters,
urinary catheters, urinary catcher’s bags, colon plastic bags, labor materials,
adult pads, medicines, pipette tips, culture plates, serologic plates,
containers, sample container, feeding bottles, energy drink and nutritious
drinks worth fifty thousand Euros.
Speaking
at the presentation ceremony, Adama Sonko, coordinator of Bennie Helpt Gambia
Foundation and Ilona, said her foundation was formed by Bennie, a Dutch
national, who started the initiation by sending medical items to the Edward
Francis Small Teaching Hospital and other Gambian health centres.
“The
Bennie Helpt and Ilona Foundation’s main focus over the years has been helping
hospitals by donating materials such as medicines, among many other useful
medical items to the various hospitals, that are in need of such materials, to
boost their services,” she said.
According
to her, the aim of the association is to mobilise all the foundation and
individual donors that help The Gambia through donating hospital materials.
She
said the new foundation is also an umbrella of the Bennie Helpt The Gambia and
Ilona Foundation, adding that the materials they donated to the EFSTH are
basically donated by the Ilona and Bennie Helpt Foundation.
She
said Ilona is a nurse working in one of the hospitals in Holland and that some
of the medical items donated by the foundation were gathered by her as her own
contribution to the association.
“I
get to know them through my stepmother, and since then I have been given the
role of a coordinator in the foundation. When they send the materials to The
Gambia, as a medical student myself I normally do my own sorting and ensure that
they are in order before shifting them to their numerous locations.”
She
added that most of the laboratory materials are normally sent to EFSTH because
they have a lab at the hospital.
The
previous consignment they sent had new laboratory materials like the pipettes
tips and culture plates and so on, she added.
The
material they gave to the health centres are mostly cotton and gloves, she
continued, adding that they would be distributed to their various health
centres.
This
was the fourth time they were giving out materials to the EFSTH, and it was the
second time they had also given out to other health centres.
“The
consignment of the medical items will have a great impact in the hospital
because it is a government hospital and they rely on donation and sponsorship;
so having donation like this would also be very useful to the theatre. The
materials donated will also make the work of the doctors very easy and it will
as well improve health care delivery.”
Momodou
Lamin Jammeh, EFSTH public relations officer, in his remarks said this year’s
donation was the second of its kind from Bennie Helpt towards the country’s
biggest hospital.
He
thanked the group on behalf of the management and staff of EFSTH for their
benevolent humanitarian gesture, adding that the materials given to them would
help them to run their services more effectively and on time.
He
called on other stakeholders to follow in the footsteps of the Bennie and Ilona
Foundation, as the government could not do it all alone.
