Receiving the check in her office, the vice president thanked the group and urged other Gambians to emulate them. She said though Ebola is absent in the country there is need to spread the good message to the international community so as to be able to attract tourists into the country.
She added: “We are aware that the president is really concerned about the impact of Ebola in the development process of our sub-region of West Africa. That is why when he knew about it and its presence in some of the countries he extended assistance. But he did not stop there; he has set-up a committee which he himself is chairing which shows the importance he gave to this whole issue.”
The managing director of the group, Malleh Sallah, said the Ebola virus has become “very prevalent in our sister countries and we thought that we would make a contribution to our government basically to say thank you for the good work that you have done to protect our country.”
Sallah said his group is motivated by the mechanisms put in place by government to beef up surveillance and preventive efforts at border posts against the possible arrival of the epidemic in the country.
“As far back as April, when our government took the steps to start restricting air travel and took the step to increase the surveillance on our borders, we followed this step steadfastly and we are of the opinion that this went a long way in protecting The Gambia,” he told delegates at the Office of the vice president.
The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare is credited for their handling of the Ebola epidemic. “What we are doing at the ministry is surveillance, prevention and strengthening control day to day,” said health minister Omar Sey.
The Djeliba Leisure Group is a consortium of Gambian entrepreneurs investing in the tourism sector, the second largest contributor to the country’s GDP.
The tourism minister Benjamin Roberts stated: “The gesture that you are here today quite a laudable one and we hope that we would get more support from all the players in tourism. So we commend you for this initiative. I am pretty sure the health minister would agree that this would also go a long way in terms of surveillance and reinforcement of the various initiatives that have been put in place”.
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