By Makutu Manneh
The constituents of Foni Jarrol Constituency have complained to President Adama Barrow in the continuation of his meet the people’s tour, of the high rural-urban migration especially of young people, in their communities.
Momodou A. Bah who spoke on behalf of the people of Foni Jarrol Constituency, made the complaint on Monday 2nd December, during the continuation of President Adama Barrow’s nationwide “Meet the people’s tour”. He said the main reason for this high drift of people from the rural to urban areas is due mainly to lack of electricity.
“We want to have electricity so that our people can stay and work within their own communities,” Bah told the President; that most of the community’s youth now leave for the ‘Kombos’ more than ever just because there is no electricity in their communities.
Bah told the President that Kampassa Fealth facility which is owned by the community and sponsored by CCF now called Child Fund, have been given a handover notice of the clinic to the community.
“We want the Clinic to be transformed to your Government’s custody since the people of the community cannot take care of it,” he said; that the community is also in need of water supply for both the people and animals; that most of them fetch water using donkey-carts.
Tumani Sambou of Kampassa said they have difficulties in the area of education; that in Kampassa they have only one primary School; that when students complete their primary education, it is always a challenge for them to proceed to the next level.
“We would want your Government to upgrade our School for us,” he said.
Dado Sambou who represented the women of Jarrol District said women suffer a lot in the community; that they depend on framing but lack the requisite materials and tools to aid them in their farming endeavors. “We the women use our bare hands to process our millet and we lack fertilizer for our farmlands,” she said.
In his response, President Barrow told the people of Jarrol District that their problems will be taken into consideration; that his Minister in charge of Basic Education will come back to the district to survey the place and see how they can upgrade the School and mend the broken items; that their problems regarding communication will be over soon because there is a new project on the way where all network operators will use one pole.
The president assured them that whenever their Clinic is handed over to them, his Government will take ownership of it. “We will do more for this Clinic when we take it over from the Child Fund. The Gambia without Foni is incomplete and no one has the right to separate Foni from the rest of the Gambia,” President Barrow concludes.
