PHOTO: MNG Gold General Manager Cem Koray Yagci at the groundbreaking
By Emmanuel Mafelah, mafelahemmanuel29@gmail.com
GBARNGA, Liberia- Citizens of District One in Kokoyah Statutory District, Bong County, have all reasons to laugh, thanks to the Turkish Gold mining company, MNG Gold.
The company operating has broken grounds for the construction of a clinic facility which estimated cost is US$150,000.00.
The project is part of the company’s corporate social responsibility support to the citizens for extracting gold from the community.
MNG Gold’s General Manager Cem Koray Yagci, said the clinic, when completed, would provide health services to employees of the company and citizens of the district.
“As Manager of MNG Gold, we, along with my entire staff will start this clinic and complete it this year 2020 for the advancement of our citizens – women and children,” Yagci said during the groundbreaking recently in Sayewheh Town.
Yagci called for the community’s collaboration in his quest to deliver on the company’s social responsibilities and promises his predecessors made to the community.
The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by scores of citizens and leaders of the district, as well as District Representative, Albert Hills, Bong County Senator, Henry Yallah, and the administrator of the Bong County Health Team, Jonah Togbah, among others.
The 13 bedroom and nurse quarter’s project is designed to help address the need of the community and will be completed and dedicated to the community this December, the company’s government Eugine Kollie said.
“The clinic is a public facility and government is expected to take responsibility for its management. However, the issue of initial staffs salaries will be negotiated between government and MNG Gold,” Kollie according to Kollie.
Some of those in attendance expressed appreciation for the company’s effort, saying they were and are eager to see the completion and dedication of what will become the first and only public health post in the immediate vicinity where the company’s mines are situated.
The Chairperson of the disrict’s Multi Stakeholder Platform Rose Somah, said communities in the area continue to suffer from poor access to healthcare; causing them to walk long distances to seek tratment.
She assured the company and the contractor of maximum support from the women in the area throughout the construction period.
Apprehension over the slow pace of the clinic project, in time past, led to citizens holding series of demonstrations in the Kokoyah Statutory District the area, with e company being accused of reneging on some of its corporate social rsponsibilities.
Rep. Albert Hills and Senator Yallah, who all hail from the area then appealed to the citizens to always remain peaceful and collaborate with them to engage the company in a more constructive, civil manner.
The two lawmakers said advocacy for cooperate social benefits to the affected area would be difficult to yield fruits when citizens continued to stage violent demonstrations and damage company properties.
Hills thanked the management of MNG Gold for initiating the clinic project and expressed the hope that it is timely implemented.
For Senator Yallah, the current General Manager of the company seems to be “sensitive and responsive” to the needs of the community, for the fact that the company has embarked on implementing key projects captured as a corporate social responsibility to the community.
He encouraged the management to be sincere in living up to its part of the bargain of the concession agreement; particularly its responsibility to the community.
Also speaking during the groundbreaking was Jonah Togbah, from the county’s health team, who said local health authorities in Bong will ensure the company follows the Health Ministry’s standard for constructing clinics in the country.