World Bank ends workshop

Institutions receiving World Bank funding have benefitted from a three-day intensive training at the Development Education Network-Liberia or DENT-L in Gbarnga, Bong County. The workshop, according to the World Bank-Liberia Country Manager Ms. Inguna Dobraja, was intended to build the capacity of communication and public affairs officers, whose institutions receive support from the Bank.

Ms. Dobraja said the training was a result of consultative meetings between the World Bank and government ministries and agencies implementing World Bank-financed projects. She noted public affairs information officers and others were targeted based on the key role played in communicating and disseminating the workings of the World Bank in Liberia and their respective institutions and agencies.

The World Bank Country Manager said providing the requisite training for its partner institutions would help to create a better understanding of Liberia’s development agenda. The three-day workshop also provided participants a realistic view of articulating the social process, as well as the communication participatory process in improving the lives of project’s beneficiaries.

The workshop, which ended Saturday, was attended by communication and public affairs Officers of Government Ministries, Agencies, public cooperation, autonomous agencies, as well as Project implementation Units.

Africare donates to county health team

Africare and Medical Teams International have donated a four-door Toyota Land cruiser pick-up to the Bong County Health Team. The cost of the pickup is in the tune of fifty thousand United States Dollars.

At the presentation of the vehicle last Friday, Africare Senior, Primary Health Care Project coordinator George Toe said the donation was in fulfillment of an agreement signed by the two institutions with the Ministry of Health and USAID.

Mr. Toe noted that supervision, being an essential part of the health sector, logistical support was needed to ensure an effective system, emphasizing that with the availability of the four-door land cruiser pick-up, an ambulance and twenty-four Yamaha motorcycles would soon be provided to the County Health Team under the same project.

The Africare PHC Senior Project Coordinator maintained that the donation will assist far away communities from health facilities. Receiving the vehicle, Bong County Health officer Sampson Arzoaquoi commended the consortium for the provision of the vehicle, adding that the provision of logistics will further enhance their capacity to provide the right health services to the people of Bong County. 

Dr. Arzoaquoi said currently there was no ambulance in the county, as none of the ambulances was functioning, expressing fear about the health workers strike action.

FOI training for CSO officials

Regional heads of Civil Society organizations have undergone training on the Freedom of Information Law. The training, according to George Johnson, was aimed at broadening the minds of the Civil Society executives and local leaders in Zwedru and Fish town, Grand Gedeh and River Gee Counties on the proper implementation of the Freedom of Information Law.

Mr. Johnson said, during their conference with local leaders, they were admonished to implement the FOI laws. The Regional CSO Head for Bong, Lofa and Nimba Counties urged citizens to request for the necessary information, despite the challenges facing the implementation process.

He stressed the need for more awareness of the FOI Law as some leaders feel, witching hunted. Commenting on life in Grand Gedeh and River Gee Counties, Mr. Johnson said, life has been just as unbearable as in the central region.     

George Johnson, also Chairman of the Bong Citizens Union, said, he was pleased with the level of business activities Bongese in that part of Liberia were engaged in, emphasizing the need for unity among Bong Citizens in developing the County. The training was organized by the West African Civil Society Institute, with sponsorship from the United States Agency for International Development or USAID.

Lawmaker Donates to Clinic Construction

In continuation of his support of health institutions, Bong County Representative Prince Karmue Moye has made available for the Joseph Manyango Clinic (formerly LAM Clinic) forty-bags of cement for its on-going construction project in Gbarnga. Making the presentation recently, the lawmaker expressed his preparedness in helping sectors of society that are meaningfully contributing to the growth of the nation.

He described the Joseph Manyango Clinic, formerly LAM Clinic, as a household name in the health sector of the county due to its role in helping in times of crisis and chaos.

Moye, then, lauded the management of the clinic for the vision to build a better structure to provide health services to the people, suggesting that with the present patient-load on Phebe and C. B. Dunbar Hospitals, Joseph Manyango Clinic and other clinics greatly helped the population. The Electoral District #2 Lawmaker reminded the clinic’s administration to allow patients pay less if they were to continue the partnership with government.

Taking delivery of the forty-bags of cement, Joseph Manyango expressed appreciation for the contribution of the lawmaker to the project, hoping for God’s continued blessings on the youthful representative. He hailed him for crossing his borders and regularly helping those in need, terming him as a ‘humanitarian lawmaker’.