VP gives to namesake

A  high powered delegation led by Alpha A Khan, who represented the vice-president, yesterday, visited the Sumbundu family at Alikali Village, where  a handsome amount of cash was presented to Aja Sumbundu, the mother of a newborn baby named after Dr Aja Isatou Njie-Saidy. Aja was a patient who was admitted into the President’s Infertility Treatment Programme, which enabled her to conceive and eventually give birth to a baby girl.

Speaking at the presentation ceremony, Mr Khan said there were “doubting Thomases” of the efficacy of the treatment, but they have been proven wrong.  

“Here is a child and the mother has confirmed that it was the medication President Jammeh gave her that enabled her to get pregnant. The president is doing his best to improve the health of the Gambian people without a fee,” Mr Khan said.

According to Mr Khan, traditional and conventional medicine have the same objective. “Their aim is to restore the sick to health”. He thanked Dr Tamsir Mbowe, the director general of the Presidential Medical Treatment Programme, Alhaji Momodou Sanyang, the director general of GRTS and the entire medical team for a job well done.

For his part, Dr Tamsir Mbowe said it was a “great joy to witness the gesture of the vice-president to her namesake”.

“The treatment is meant to help the infertile to be fertile and it is the best in the world,” Dr Mbowe added.

Alhaji Demba Sanyang, the paramount chief of The Gambia, who handed over the gift to baby Isatou’s mother, prayed to God to bless baby Isatou. He also thanked the vice-president, Aja Dr Isatou Njie-Saidy for the gesture.

Other speakers at the ceremony included Mberi Sowe and Jainaba Badjie, who spoke on behalf of the Sumbundu family. Both of them praised the Gambian leader and the baby’s namesake for the generosity.