The Gambia’s main psychiatric hospital ‘Tanka Tanka’ has received donations of essential items from a group of young graduates of University of The Gambia.

The donated materials, from the Oriented Minds Group, include clothes, detergents soaps, toothbrushes and toothpastes, mosquito sprays, sanitary pads and brooms of different sizes.

The Group, which was formed in 2010, has been embarking on similar charitable gestures to other communities in need.

Speaking to journalists at the donation ceremony at Tanka Tanka, the vice chairman of the Group, Abdoulie Bah said the group was motivated to give back to the main psychiatric hospital in the country due to the condition of the patients admitted there.

He urged other Gambians to give helping hand to the hospitals saying that “No one is immune to psychiatric problems. I might be the one today giving back to them but no one is immune to psychiatric problems.

“This is the motive of the Association – giving back to the society because we believed that society has given so much to us and then it is important that we do our quota to national development.”

Mr. Bah said after mentoring over five high schools within the Greater Banjul Area, they decided to come up with different charitable support to the society this year.

He said: “since our graduation every year we have been giving back in various form, last year our community service was on education.”

Meanwhile speaking on behalf of the recipient hospital Yankuba Suwareh, a nursing officer at Tanka Tanka, commended the group for the gesture, describing it as “not small to the hospital but what we see is the concerns of the people”.

He said the gesture will go a long way in helping the hospital to take care of the patients as they have different psychiatric patients with different needs.

“The challenges we faced here is the wellbeing of our patients and the staff motivation. Our patients’ needs are basically their personal hygiene which is a challenge because the bathrooms are not good,” he said.

He called for more chambers for the patients and expressed concerned about transportation for the staff of the hospitals, saying they usually trek nearly a kilometre a day to get to the hospital.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba