The Minister of Health, Dr Ahmadou Lamin Samateh, recently laid the foundation stone for the construction of a mosque within the new complex of the Ministry of Health in Bijilo.
The event commenced with the recitation of the Holy Quran by elders in the community.
The project, contracted to Daru Salaam Construction Company, was financed to the tune of 35,000 Euros sponsored by Direct Aid.
However, the site where the foundation stone of the new mosque will be laid, according to health officials, would accommodate the National Food and Drug Quality Lab, Structures for the National Health Insurance Authority and the new Ministry of Health complex.
Speaking at the ceremony, Abdellatif Ourahou, director of Direct Aid, described the event as another milestone in the partnership between the Ministry and Direct Aid.
“It is a partnership which covers many subjects, namely operating clinics, running hospitals and free eye surgical camps,” he said.
The Direct Aid boss thus expressed optimism that the new mosque would serve the community and employees of the ministry.
He equally thanked the ministry for giving his NGO an opportunity to support the people of The Gambia.
For his part, Dr Ahmadou Lamin Samateh, minister of Health, expressed delight to have presided over the event, saying it “signals another important partnership” with his ministry.
“But it goes further to emphasise the fact that we have good people who are always willing to help the health sector bearing in mind that a healthy nation is a wealthy nation. And that other socio-economic development cannot take place if people are not healthy,” he noted.
The move, he added, was another step that humbled them further that they had partners and who had a lot of confidence in them and the leadership of the country. “Because if they do not have confidence in us they wouldn’t do what they are doing today,” he said.
Minister Samateh reiterated that Direct Aid and the Gambia Government have been great partners, saying the NGO had been supporting the people of The Gambia in many ways.
“The building of a mosque in our facility goes further to support the faith of the people who are going to be working here and by extension the community, ” he said
He thanked Direct Aid for the foresight and the wonderful gesture, as well as their partners, such as the World Bank.
