Sukuta elect Councilor: My motto is community interest first before an individual interest

The newly independent elected candidate for Sukuta Ward Ebrima J. Cham has said that his development motto is putting community’s interest first before an individual interest in order to achieve his targeted development plans in the ward for the next five years as promised to his electorates during campaign period.

The newly elected councilor started his projects with a drilling a borehole in Sukuta Dembadu football field costing an amount of D75, 000 thanks to the financial supports he gained from the natives of the community, even though he is not yet officially inaugurated in to office.

Speaking to MatketPlce in an interview at the project side, the newly councilor Ebrima J. Cham expressed his happiness with turnout from the youth. “The turnout from the both side of the youths has real impress me especial on my first project even though am not yet inaugurate in to office. This has demonstrated to me that the youths are ready to work with me for the next five years for the development in the ward”, Cham said.

Community elders at borehole project side

“I am a social worker and a community development oriented person, why I initiated this is that it has been in me during my time as a social worker before coming to be a councilor, I find out that a borehole should put in the field to help the sports committee, because they don’t have the money to be paying (NAWEC) at all the time. The only way that favours them is a borehole to put condition of the field in a better system. That system of operation was not helping the committee’s development plans, so it is like one further, two steps backward. To put that situation under control my capacity as the ward councilor, I choose to prioritize it as my first project for the benefit of everybody in the community and the ward as a whole’’, he said.

“Borehole drilling is coasty per say, and it is labour intensive as we are doing it manual, but am real impress because I have the full support of the people in the community. This is like a community labour because I believe in involving the community to participate in their own avenue. Initial we started with zero and thank God am now sowing water coming out, we are now left with pipe and filters to install for it to start operating. Financially the money involve in this is D 75,000 if go through the right way, but as at now the cost I have through the support of the community is D20,000 to got all the necessary materials even though some of them are given out to as for free by patriotic and guanine citizen of the community”, Cham said.

“Borehole is my project for the entire communities in my ward, because we have some people / communities who are not entitle to save drinking water. So I want to take it as my responsibilities to make sure these communities have a good and save drinking water. In doing that I have to prioritized then starting with the areas that needed it must’’, he said.

This project means a lot to me and it is showing me that am affecting to my development gold one after the other  not without the financial supports from the Sukuta community. I have development package, so if this one is successful means all the rest will be successful.

Elect Councilor Ebrima J. Cham and VDC chairman Momadou Cham

Asked about the community reaction  Cham reply that “ It has being something that the community has long been waiting for and it is fortunately that it happen in my time, because I mobilized the whole community to realize self  belonging to be periotic and to have love for the community and what ever can be attributed to the social economic development of the community .This is the moral I put in the minds and hearts of the peoples of the community which real boost my moral in the sense that they are with me in what ever development initiative that I want to undertake”, he said.

Highlighting on some other major projects he plan for the ward Cham said “I want to have two high schools in the ward, a proper health facility, waist collection, multi purpose technical training institute for the young school learners and also I would like to empower the community’s horticultural woman in their garden work by digging boreholes and providing them with proper cool storage facilities to avoid their products from rotten and eventually running into big loses. This will real help the women because most of them use gardening as their main sources of income to pay their children school fees and other financial needs”, he said.

“The only thing I believe is that I am a patriotic Gambian, I have interest in loving my country and I am interested in anything that can take this country further. That is what I want to inculcate in the mind of every young Gambian to be development oriented, to have the country and respect our elders because we are the feature leaders of tomorrow. But if we are not assuring the role of responsibilities of this stage we just thing about the feature what will it help us. I will want every youth of this country not and not those from Sukuta alone to join hands together for the betterment of this country in order to achieve the targeted vision 2020 development blue print’, Cham said.

He called on the natives of Sukuta especial those in overseas to supports him financial so that he can achieve his development plans in the ward as the councilor elected in a clear landslides victory. While assuring to them that any financial support given to him will be him will serve it’s intended purpose without any doubt.

Also speaking on behalf of the community, the Village Development Committee (VDC) chairman Momadou Cham said “this is another stage of development process adding that the fencing of the football field was completed in 1995. But the whole plans were to construct a pavilion, grassing the field and developing tracks for athletic. The main challenging of all was the water shortage in order to all these works together particularly the grassing aspect.  This is a major development; once we get water subsequently the others can be done freely”, VDC chairman said.

According to him the beneficiary level of the borehole in the field is expected to not only for the field, but outside as well naming the graveyard as an example which is the nearest to the field. He continues that they will extend few pipes to the graveyard so that people coming for burial will not come with water from home again.

Asked whether he was surprise with the early development from the newly elected councilor of Sukuta ward? VDC chairman reply “I am not surprise with it at all, because I know Ebrima (the new councilor) very well since in his Red Cross time. He has work as a social worker and a community development oriented person for many years, so I know what he can do went it comes to community development. This is an opportunity given to him to continue doing his regular work for the community and beyond”, he said.

“The role of a councilor is to coordinate and mobilized, he initiated and get support, he also get additional resources else where. So he is the catalyst, he moves and others come in to support, that is the way he does it and that’s the way developers also does.  All those supporting Ebrima’s development agenda are individuals and natives of Sukuta’s community. Ebrima is the catalyst but the people of Sukuta will make sure that this projects get to conclusion at all cost”, he said.

For the community, we don’t want to bring them here yet, but the message has already get out to them. We want time they will be coming the project is at the finishing stage so that they can see change in the ground. This is not the first of Ebrima’s project, its started two weeks ago went we clear dump side, so he has already initiated a very useful project. The dump side has being there for more than five years without being collected. He was elected today the following day he started the community work, even though he is not yet official sown in as the councilor, he started working”, he said.