About Us/FoB Vice President Maimuna Sey Urges 2015 Membership Renewal
02/17/2015 22:58
Friday, January 16, 2015
Friends of Basse Vice President Ms. Maimuna Sey
Dear Team,
On behalf of the Friends of Basse Executive, let me take this opportunity to wish you and your families a Happy New Year filled with good health, happiness and prosperity. As we begin the New Year, I would like you to join me in renewing our commitment to our community back home and to continue moving the Friends of Basse’s agenda forward.
The Year 2014 was a very successful year. We saw an increase in membership across the globe. We also saw an increase in our sister folk joining us in large numbers.
For the first time we were able to organize reunions in Europe, and in the US via Pa M. L. Joof’s and Fatou Sowe-Joof’s invitation to their babies’ naming ceremony. Those of you that attended will attest that it was a joyous occasion where new friends were made and old friends rekindled their friendship. Due to the success and overwhelming request for a repeat, we are working on putting together a 2015 reunion some time before the end of the first quarter. The date will be announced shortly and we look forward to a great turnout with more activities.
The 2014 Ramadan Project was another success. With your help we were able to provide Iftar to both mosques in Basse and also to distribute sugar to all the satellite villages. The 2014 program saw a wider involvement of members on the ground. We look forward to the 2015 Ramadan Project.
For those of you that still have your 2014 FoB t-shirts, get ready for the arrival of the 2015 supply. In 2015 we are looking into introducing more FoB merchandise to help us raise funds and increase the organization’s profile.
Also in the works: the executive on the ground is working on a “No to the Back Way” fundraising event in Basse with the Gambian Kora maestro Jaliba Kuyateh and his Kumareh band. We will be announcing the date and venue in the very near future. We will look forward to local participation to not only raise funds but also to bring about a much needed awareness on the perils of the back-way journey. Our Upper River Region has lost a lot of brothers on the “Back Way to Europe” over the years. The FoB should join in sensitization efforts to combat this increasing menace.
My friends, I would like to talk about the Library project we started at the beginning of 2014. As many of you are aware, we had over 2500 books and over 50 computers on the ground; these were to be used for the Library Project. However after a much detailed analysis of the project, we concluded that FoB was not financially capable of taking on and sustaining such a huge project. We will, however, continue collecting funds with the hope of taking on the project in the near future. As such, the members have agreed to donate the books and computers to our local schools. The executive on the ground, led by our able Project Manager Mr. Kawsu Sillah, is taking inventory of the items and looking into how to distribute the items for them to be put to good us rather than keeping them in storage, thus leaving them obsolete.
Ladies and Gentlemen, having said all of this, I will now call on all of you, Basseans and Friends of Basse to join us by renewing your membership and helping move FoB forward. The task we have at hand is challenging but there is nothing more fulfilling that giving back to a community that helped lay the foundation for the great successes most of us, either as a group or individually, currently enjoy. Like our brothers and sisters did for us, our young ones need us and collectively we can help make a difference in their lives and in our community. Please join us today. Visit us at www.mybasse.org for directions as to how you can pay or renew your 2015 membership. We welcome and encourage members to also consider donating.
Maimuna Sey
Read more: https://www.mybasse.org/
———
Back
For general inquiries, please email the Editorial Board:
editorialboard ( at ) mybasse (dot) org
The town is a major trading center.
The main highway into town.
School kids playing at the newly established SOS Children's Village
Basse Car Park