By Adama Makasuba
Oriented Minds Group a group of young graduates of University of The Gambia on Sunday donated different materials to the country’s main psychiatric hospital ‘Tanka Tanka’ in Salaji.
The donated materials include cloths, detergents soaps, toothbrush and paste, mosquito sprays, sanitary pads and brooms of different types.
The group which was formed in 2010 has been giving out such gesture to communities in various forms.
Speaking to journalists at the donation ceremony at Tanka Tanka, the vice chairman of the Group Abdoulie Bah said the group was motivated to give back to the main psychiatric hospital in the country as a result in the condition of the patients admitted into the hospital.
He urged Gambians to give helping hands to the hospitals saying “No one is immune to psychiatric, I might be the one today giving back to them but one is immune to psychiatric.”
“This is the motive of the Association giving back to the society because we believed that society has giving so much to us and then it is important that to do our quota to nation development,” Bah added.
Mr Bah said after mentoring over five high schools within the Greater Banjul Area that they decided to come up with different helping hand to the society this year.
He said: “since our graduation every year we have been giving back in various form, last year our community service was on education.”
Meanwhile, speaking on behalf of the recipient hospital, Yankuba Suwareh a nursing officer at Tanka Tanka commended the group for the gesture, describing as ‘not small to the hospital but what we see is the concern of the people.’
He said the gesture will go a long way helping the hospital to take care of the patients as he said they have different psychiatric patients whom reactions differs.
“The challenges we faced here is the wellbeing of our patients and the staff motivation. Our patient’s wellbeing is basically their personal hygiene is a challenge because the bathrooms are not good,” he said.
He called for having more chambers for the patients and expressed concerned about mobility for the staff of the hospitals, saying they (staff) trek nearly a kilometer on daily basis to the hospital.