The president of The Gambia Red Cross Society (GRCS) has expressed his desire to strengthen cooperation with the government of The Gambia in the areas of nutrition and food aid, among others.

Ebrima Sanneh was speaking to reporters during an interview at State House Tuesday shortly after an audience with the vice president and minister of Women's Affairs, Her Excellency Aja Dr Isatou Njie-Saidy.“Our role is axillary to the society and the government, based on mutual interest, we are intervening in areas that are beneficial to the government and therefore it is something we want the government to look into,” he said.

He added that they also want a review of the Gambia Red Cross Act, which was enacted in 1966 and revised in 1990, noting that its revision would be prudent, as it would help accommodate certain relevant changes taking place. Dilating on how to strengthen the cooperation and partnership with the government, Sanneh opined that the government has allocate resources that would make Red Cross to become more operational with a view to play the significant role they are already playing. He also commented on some current projects they are undertaking in the country, such as the distribution of some food items to some communities in a few districts. 

On his part, the national regional representative of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, Momodou L Faye stated that currently the Red Cross across the globe is facing lots of challenges particularly in the sub-region. He further stated that the recent food crisis has affected lots of countries and that over 16 million people are directly affected. “Our role specifically is to support the Gambia Red Cross Society for them to be able to identify and provide support – a support that would be on long-term basis,” he added.

He also spoke about the need to build resilient capacity of those communities so that they would not be subjected to such in the future, pointing out that this is why the GRCS needed re-enforcement to play its meaningful role in society.