Basse Area Council Gives D400,000 Boost to Complete Sutukonding Clinic

By Dawda Baldeh

The Basse Area Council has handed over a D400,000 (£4,500; $6,000) cheque to complete the construction of the Sutukonding Community Clinic, in a move set to transform basic healthcare access for more than 10 surrounding villages.

The Council’s Chairperson, Mahamadou Ceesay, presented the funds on Thursday to the Ward Councillor for Sutukonding, Mawdo Sisawo. The intervention is aimed at easing the severe burden on local residents, particularly mothers, who currently travel long distances over difficult terrain to reach the nearest medical facilities.

Addressing community members at the handover ceremony, Chairman Ceesay stated that the grant reflects ongoing administrative reforms designed to ensure local government transparency and efficient service delivery without relying on debt.

“We came to this Council with the ambition to build an institution that will be answerable to its people; an institution that will be corruption-free, and an institution that will live on a foundation that no one can destroy,” Chairman Ceesay said.

He highlighted that internal financial management overhauls had directly enabled the council to bankroll key infrastructure projects independently.

“We have made these promises, but today, we are proud to have come this far,” Chairman Ceesay added. “We have done a lot, and a lot has been said, but we are grateful that today we are building clinics to improve the healthcare of our people.”

Accepting the cheque, Councillor Mawdo Sisawo welcomed the support, describing the completion of the healthcare centre as an urgent priority for his constituency. He urged leaders to keep development projects focused strictly on human welfare, regardless of political affiliations.

Local women leaders praised the funding, pointing out the acute strain remote living places on maternal and child healthcare. Bato Jawneh, a women’s leader in Sutukonding, noted that the completed clinic would end the arduous journeys mothers undertake to secure routine infant care.

“We are the ones who face the brunt of travelling kilometres to attend the weekly immunisation of our babies,” Ms Jawneh said. “This is timely. We cannot pay the council.”

Once operational, the Sutukonding Community Clinic will act as a primary healthcare hub for the entire ward, providing frontline medical treatment, emergency care, and infant immunisation services directly to thousands of rural residents.