State
House, Banjul, January 2, 2020 – As part of her New Year day engagements, Her
Excellency, First Lady, Fatou Bah-Barrow personally presided over the
presentation of cash prizes and baskets of gifts to the 2020 babies born at the
dawn of the New Year at health facilities in Banjul and Kanifing regions.
Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH)
in Banjul, the Kanifing Hospital and the Bundung Maternal and Child Health
Hospital were each visited by the First Lady. Similar presentations were made
by delegates from the Fatou Bah-Barrow (FaBB) Foundation, who were dispatched
to deliver cash prizes of D15, 000 and D10, 000 respectively to each of the
first two babies born at major health facilities across the country.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Ahmadou Samateh
described the event of welcoming new babies at the beginning of the New Year as
promising. He applauded FaBB for providing support to the families and the
hospitals. The Health Minister noted the
support of the First Lady’s Foundation towards the modernisation taking place
at EFST hospital and in the health sector in general.
“They brought in hundreds of beds, tens of
equipment, a lot of support including construction materials donated to enable
us achieve our goal of modernisation of the hospital. Patients have been
supported at various levels; individual donations towards their upkeep in the
facility and they have been there for us,” Minister Samateh asserted.
Already, the tender for renovation of all
health facilities is underway and 2020 is expected to usher in more progress in
the sector. “There are a lot of
equipment that have been procured and we are going to procure a lot more. We
have started residency training. We have trained many and we will be training a
lot more. Further training for the specialisation of nurses are also
prioritised so as to achieve our goals of a standard service delivery system in
the sector.” The Health Minister revealed.
Meanwhile, statistics from the Bundung
Maternal and Children Hospital states that 2019 recorded 4,286 deliveries. 365
(8.5%) were delivered by Cesarean section operations while 98% were delivered
as life births. Only one maternal death was registered in 2019 and its
resolution for 2020 is no maternal death.
At the Kanifing Hospital, Senior Midwife,
Isatou Cham said “It is definitely a true motivation for us the staff to work
for the whole year and expecting your First Lady to come and say thank you to
the staff; see fellow women who underwent pregnancy and child birth with
handshakes and smiles. We are very appreciative.”
This year, Gamtel/Gamcel, Kar Power and
Africell partnered to support the FaBB First Baby Event. In addition,
the medical staff on duty were also donated a token at the said
facilities to motivate them for their services.
