By Aji Fatou Jammeh
Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) recently received 17 emergency response vehicles for onwards distribution to Health Centers, Fire Service and Security Services serving within the Kanifing Municipality (KM).
The donation facilitated by the Ebou Malang Children Charity Foundation (EMCCF) with support from Emergency Services Aids Charity (ESAC), includes 9 fully equipped ambulances, 2 emergency vehicles and 6 Fire fighting Trucks.
The Mayor of KM Talib Ahmed Bensouda expressed his profound gratitude to the EMCCF and ESAC for the donation. He described the gesture as timely as it would help to improve services delivery at hospitals, fire fighting services as well facilitate the work of the security services in the face of increasing crime rate in the municipality.
Mayor Bensouda reaffirmed that the vehicles will further help to save lives of citizens by placing more resources at their disposal to improve their emergency responsiveness and the accessibility of residents to health facilities.
KM Mayor said the deficit in ambulance services in response to emergency situations to transport people who are in critically ill or in life threatening conditions to health facilities has an issues that confront health facilities, This, he said leads to use of public taxis or private vehicle in such situations, which unlike ambulances, are not equipped with life support equipment on board, which, he said in most cases is vital to ensuring better chances of survival. He added the donation will go along way in addressing some of these challenges.
He said council’s main objective is to improve services in support of the overall improvement of the livelihood of the people within the municipality and beyond. He stated that the country is challenged with limited resources to effectively response to emergency situations such as fire, ambulance service requirement security threats especially in KM which is the most densely populated and urbanized municipality
He commended the efforts of the fire service in combating fires outbreak while highlighting that poor physical planning hampers the efforts of fire fighters while sub standard electrical wiring as major cause of fire out breaks
Tallinding South Councilor, Karamo Ceesay recalled that there were 58 fire incidents recorded in KM from January to date in which two people lost their lives. He used the opportunity to thank their partners for coming to their aid.
Mr. Samba Bah, Chairman of EMCCF said his organization used to provide school materials to students all over the country but this time, they deemed it necessary to provide these materials. He said, “to provide quality health care, you must have the right equipment in order to be efficient’’.
