By: Yunus S Saliu
Freeman Health Care Foundation (FHCF), based in America in collaboration with the Center for Research and Advocacy on Women and Adolescent Health (CRAWAH) The Gambia, Wednesday donated health consumable items to different public health facilities in both Banjul city and Greater Banjul Area.
The beneficiaries public health facilities included Bundung Maternal Hospital; Fajikunda Health Centre; Serekunda Health Centre; Kanifing General Hospital and Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH); School of Nursing and Tanka Tanka Psychiatric Hospital.
The items for donation as highlighted by the donors include vital signs devices and PPEs; diabetic kits; reusable sanitary pads and among others.
Receiving boxes of gloves, which are part of the items at Kanifing General Hospital, Mr Baboucar Saine, administrator of Kanifing General Hospital, thanked the donors and family for the gesture noticing that “this valuable item, hand gloves, which are personal protective equipment, is very important to the hospital.”
He explained that it is an important PPE they use when providing services to the patients to prevent cross contamination. It uses “to prevent infectious agency either from the service provider to the patient or from the patient to the service provider. So, using it helps to protect service provider and as well protect the patients because infection can spread from either service provider to patient or patient to service provider.”
He reiterated that the gesture is very timely taking into consideration covid-19 and other diseases which have make the use of hand gloves increase in “all our hospitals. This also has makes it very expensive as management spends nothing less than D300,000-D500,000.00 a month on only hand glove and same to some similar PPEs. So, this is going to save us cost as the money to be used to procure gloves can be used for other valuable items.”
Replying to the donors’ doubt in term of using them, the hospital Administrator quickly assured the donor of the hospital putting the donated item in good use. He disclosed that Kanifing General Hospital is one of the country’s biggest and busiest hospitals, in statistic at maternity every day on average basis, “25 babies are delivering here in our maternity ward. And on average we conduct not less than three to four cesarean sections, thus, you cannot deliver a woman of child with bear hands without wearing the gloves.”
Mr Saine therefore enjoined other Gambians being in the country or Diaspora to come together in assisting public health facilities in the country to change the narrative and move the country forward.
Jerome Freeman, founder of Freeman Health Care Foundation (FHCF) based in Massachusetts, USA disclosed that the donation was made possible by family and friends.
He noted that it his intention with the foundation and partner to make this donation every year or quarter.
He disclosed that he will not just only donate the medical supply and consumables but to also volunteer at some of the public health facilities to work and exchange ideas with healthcare staffs and also the patients.
Hopefully, he said, the delivery of these consumables would make the patients and healthcare providers safer “because the goal of the donation is at the end of the day to make patients and healthcare staffs safer.”
Mr Freeman disclosed that they have distributed over 24000 hand gloves to some public health facilities while the pending other vital signs device and PPEs; Diabetic kit supplies Reusable sanitary pads; cardiovascular practice model for nursing students; digestive practice model practice for nursing students among other medical items such will be distributed immediately they arrive first week of January 2022.
As he will volunteer in some of the public health facilities, he said he hope to learn about the Gambia health system, work flow, their processes, how they approach patients, how patients too approach them, and if he can help in any way in term of sharing his experience with them too.
Adding that, “I also expect to learn a lot from them because where I work in America I don’t deal with tropical diseases but over here in The Gambia there are lots of tropical diseases especially taking care of someone with malaria and so on. So it is going to be a two ways I would learn from healthcare staffs and patients in The Gambia and hopefully they will learn something from me as well.”
Kebbah Sanneh, Public Relation Officer of EFSTH expressed appreciation on behalf of the hospital, while he took the donors on a brief conducted tour of the hospital.
Phebian Ina Grant-Sagnia founder of CRAWAH also commended the effort of FHCF while assured the beneficiaries of getting the pending items just as they arrived in the country in January 2022.
