United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has provided the Gambia Red Cross Society (GRCS) with water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) emergency items.

The items included 500 collapsible water container(10L), four collapsible water tanks of six cubic meters each, 25,850 water purification tablets, and 200 packets of soap powder.

Development Diaries understands that the items were secured with funding from the government of Denmark as part of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the West African country.

UNICEF representative in the country, Gordon Jonathan Lewis, expressed his gratitude to the people and government of Denmark for the support.

He said the items will go a long way towards strengthening national capacities to deliver lifesaving interventions for the people of The Gambia.

‘UNICEF and GRCS signed a $118,302 Programme Cooperation Agreement (PCA) to strengthen national capacity for public health preparedness, operations readiness and response during emergencies which will guarantee the provision of WASH supplies’, he said.

Speaking at the ceremony, the GRCS Secretary General, Alasan Senghore, said that the challenges of water, sanitation and hygiene continued to persist in communities and that the government can not do it alone.

Senghore emphasised the need for communities to have access to safe drinking water and maintain personal hygiene.

‘We at the Gambia Red Cross continue to invest more in providing access to water’, he said.

Also speaking, the Director of Water Resources, Chaabi Saidy, and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Lamin Dampha, commended UNICEF for the timely intervention and their continuous support and collaboration to improve the welfare of children and women in The Gambia.

Source: The Gambia Red Cross Society

Photo source: The Gambia Red Cross Society