SAYEWHEH TOWN, Bong – MNG Gold, a Turkish gold mining company operating in Kokoyah Statutory District in Bong’s first district, has embarked on the construction of a clinic for citizens.

The project is part of the company’s corporate social responsibility support to the citizens for the extraction of 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 and my entire staff, we will start this clinic and complete it within this year 2020 for the advancement of our citizens – women and children,” Yagci said during the groundbreaking recently in Sayewheh Town.

MNG Gold’s general manager, Cem Koray Yagci. Photo: Moses Bailey.

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 cost of the 13-room facility is US$150,000. It will come with a nurse’s quarter and will be completed and dedicated to the community for use in December this year, according to the company’s government liaison, Eugene Kollie.

“The clinic is a public facility and [the] government is expected to take responsibility for its management. However, the issue of initial staff salaries will be negotiated between [the] government and MNG Gold,” Kollie said.

The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by scores of citizens and leaders of the district, as well as the district’s representative, Albert Hills, Bong’s Sen. Henry Yallah, and the administrator of the Bong County Health Team, Jonah Togbah.

Citizens of the concession community gathered at the groundbreaking program. Photo: Moses Bailey.

Attendees expressed appreciation for the company’s effort and are eager to see the completion and dedication of the only public health post to be built in the immediate vicinity where the company’s mines are situated.

“We are happy today to witness this groundbreaking for the clinic,” said Rose Somah, chair of the Multiple Stakeholder Platform group in the district. “We thank the company and our leaders for this. As women here, our real appreciation will be expressed during the dedication.”

Rose Somah, chair of the Multiple Stakeholder Platform group in the district said in remarks during the program. Photo: Moses Bailey.

Somah said the communities in the area continue to suffer from poor access to healthcare, as they walk long distances to seek care for themselves and for their children.

She assured the company and the contractor of maximum support from the women in the area throughout the construction period.

In time past, the citizens have been apprehensive over the company’s slow pace in implementing some of its social contributions to the community, often leading to demonstrations.

Rep. Albert Hills and Senator Yallah, who both are natives of the concession area, appealed to the citizens to always be peaceful and collaborate with them to engage the company in a more constructive manner to live up to its commitments.

The two lawmakers said advocacy for the social cooperate benefits to the affected area will be difficult to yield fruits when citizens continue to demonstrate against the company and destroy properties.

In November 2018, there was a demonstration in the areas that resulted in residents looting and vandalizing the company’s facility.

“While we are engaging the company on your behalf, we want you people to be peaceful and look up to us,” Rep. Hills said.

Hills thanked the management of MNG Gold for initiating the construction of the clinic and expressed hope that the facility be constructed in a timely manner.

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 social responsibility to the community.

Jonah Togbah, from the county’s health team, said local health authorities in Bong will ensure the company follows the Ministry of Health’s standards for constructing clinics in the country.

Last year, the company completed a vocational training school to help train citizens of the affected community. Unfortunately, a considerable portion of the almost US$1 million structure was gutted by fire late last year, causing substantial damage to the school.

MNG Gold has promised to renovate the damaged portion of the school and do a joint dedication of the school and the clinic to the community.

A view of the damaged vocational school in Dean Town. Photo: Moses Bailey.

“We have also put in [a] plan to rehabilitate the burnt school in Dean’s Town and immediately turn over in this year for our children to have [a] credible educational system,” the company’s manager said.

Featured photo by Moses Bailey