Special report: Saving Life @ EFSTH: Cornerstone Group Donates 27 Solar Systems Worth Over D3M

The items are designed to augment services at the country’s main referral hospital in ensuring 24-hour uninterrupted electricity supply, while saving lives.

Cornerstone sustainability is part of the Cornerstone group, a Gambian Company with offices in Dakar and New York, with speciality in renewable energy and storage systems.

However, the gesture is part of the group’s corporate social responsibility and giving back to Gambian communities.  Renowned for its generosity over the past years, Cornerstone Group has been widely hailed for numerous interventions that are significantly transforming lives in the country.

The management of the country’s main referral hospital have claimed that power outage was among the top challenges affecting them, especially in some instances during peak of surgery operations, hence describing the donation as timely and worthy. 

The donated items include solar panels -15KW all in one Inverter; 30-KW Lithium Battery Storage System and 27 pieces of 550 Watts Monocrystalline Solar Systems, all amounting to over three million dalasis.

Welcoming the officials, Dr Abdoulie Keita, head of Obstetrics and Gynecology department, underscored the significance of the items, describing it as “laudable and timely”, in view of the fact that it was among the top challenges the hospital was faced with in recent past.

“Two months ago, we had a very important meeting at this hospital,” he recalled. “Heads of Departments within the hospital were asked to highlight some of the pressing issues affecting their main departments. I can tell you that one of the issues that surfaced during the meeting was the issue of electricity as hospitals can’t function in the absence of electricity.”

EFSTH, he said, is the main referral hospital in the country where all critical cases like surgery and other medical issues are sent for final care.

“As part of our care at the hospital, we do operations. And one of the issues we face within the various departments is power outages as a result of lack of electricity from NAWEC.”

He added: “Sometimes light will go off every three minutes. Therefore, it’s important to let you know that three minutes can also determine whether that patient will die or not.”

Keita indicated that sometimes doctors use their mobile phones during operation especially when the light goes off. 

“Therefore, I am happy to see Gambian taking the leading role in supporting the health sector,” he relieved, saying: “Supporting the health sector means supporting your own self and family members because anyone can be sick and rushed to a hospital.”

Abdoulie Cham, Community Engagement Officer for Cornerstone Company, expressed his institution’s resolve to continue supporting the government development endeavour.

As a Gambian owned company, he said, they would continue on their objectives in supporting initiatives geared towards positively impacting the lives and livelihoods of Gambians. 

“Empowering Gambians means we are empowering ourselves. Therefore, we will continue to respond to the needs of Gambians by addressing some of the challenges affecting them,” Mr Cham said, recalling that over the years, the company also drilled boreholes for many communities in the central part of the country and other places within the WCR.

“We are not only doing our corporate social responsibility, but we are also contributing to reducing the employment rate of the country due to the number of people that we employ.”

Hospitals, Cham said, are the last point of contact especially in terms of emergency, adding: “If we don’t support them in order to address some of the issues affecting them, it means we are in trouble. Again, when I was told that doctors sometimes had to use mobile phones when the light goes off, I said ‘No’. However, seeing the video that has been played by the hospital management is a clear indication that EFSTH urgently needed the donated items.”

Cham thus called for the sustainability of the donated items with a view to ensuring that they serve their intended purposes.

Dr Alpha Jallow, Head of Theatre at the hospital, said the donated items would go a long way towards addressing power outages at the hospital, describing the forum as another important milestone in the history of the hospital.

“With the donation of these solar panels, I can tell you that Cornerstone Group is restoring the lives of so many Gambians. You can’t operate successfully in the absence of electricity as most of our equipment can’t function in the absence of electricity. Again, when light goes off during operation, the amount of blood the patient loses is too much,” he stated.

He highlighted that the government can’t do it alone, thus the need for partnership: “I am so happy to see Gambian helping the hospital to alleviate some of the challenges affecting them. Therefore, it’s important that other companies emulate the donors and support the health sector.”

Ousman Touray, a member of Cornerstone Group, said improving the country’s health sector is part of their top agenda, saying: “We were supposed to deliver the items in a month's time. However, due to our commitment to the health sector, we ensured that the materials are around in just less than a month.”  The items summed up to over three million dalasis, he claimed.

Dr Cherno S. Jallow, deputy Chief Medical Director at the EFSTH, hailed the donors for their continued support, acknowledging that EFSTH is the busiest hospital in the country, which, he said, receives all complicated cases. “Therefore, supporting them to have constant electricity supply can’t be over emphasized.”

The hospital, he went on, is expanding rapidly with a view to catering the demand and growing needs of Gambians, saying: “We can’t do this alone. We need the capacity and resources and also electricity is very fundamental in all the operations that a hospital needs.”

Also speaking, presidential adviser Dou Sanno commended the donor for their stance in the development of the country, adding: “For the last seven months, the company has drilled boreholes in some communities throughout the country and have given scholarships to over 22 students.”

Sutay Jawo, deputy permanent secretary at the Ministry of Health, said the Ministry is pleased to be associated with this significant gesture, saying the support would go a long way in addressing the challenges the hospital is faced with.

DPS Jawo also described the items timely, saying they would significantly help the hospital, especially at the theatre unit, for doctors to be able to perform their duties without any interruptions.

He thus urged the hospital management to ensure sustainability of the donated items.

It would be recalled that Cornerstone Group recently donated brand new pickup vehicle to the Gambia Police Force (GPF) geared towards fighting crimes and other clandestine activities in CRR.