Gambian samaritan pays D2.3m to evacuate 45 girls stranded in Lebanon

After endless calls and pleas to be brought home, a Swedish based non-profit organisation – Action for Humanity (AH), founded by a Gambian, Lovette Jallow, has come to the rescue of Gambians by paying D2.3 million to help repatriate 45 Gambian girls stranded in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

According to her, she will make a total payment of D3 million to finish the mission.

The expenses include the air tickets of the girls, the lawyer’s fees and communications, as well as their upkeep and tests for Covid-19.

The non-profit organisation will also pay their bus transportation upon arrival in Senegal to be taken along the Gambian border and entry to the country. Their 14 days quarantine in a government designated hotel and pocket monies upon their return home is also taken care of by Miss Jallow’s AH.

Miss Jallow who had been communicating with the girls the moment she knew about their plight, is working closely with authorities to facilitate the smooth return of the girls to reunite with their families.

“I have done a project estimation which means that I have projected estimate that this entire repatriation process will cost me and my NGO around D3 million dalasis,” Jallow said.

“But with projects you never really know until it’s completed but that D3 million could end up being 4 million, it could end up being D2.7.

“So right now we just have a project estimation of D3 million. Out of that we’ve already spent about D2 million so far on the expenses and the rest will be handed over to the women in Gambia upon their return,” she disclosed.

The ladies are expected to arrive in The Gambia on the night of 4 September 2020 after the entire paper work is done and a Covid-19 test is carried out on them. As the Gambia airspace remains closed, the girls are expected to land at the Senegalese airport from Lebanon and be transported by bus to Karang after which the authorities will facilitate their entry into the country and to their various quarantine centers.

Asked why she is so generous to embark on the expensive rescue mission, Miss Jallow responded “Gambia has given me my heritage, Gambia has given me my family, and Gambia has given me my culture and language. So if a Gambian is outside, whether they are in Senegal or in Kuwait or in Lebanon, I am a Gambian in heart so it’s my responsibility as well.

We are at a position right now in the world where we should stop asking what is the world doing for us; and ask ourselves what are we doing for each other,” she concluded.

Action for Humanity had previously rendered support to Africans in Libya and Africans of black heritage in the other parts of the world.

In fact Lovette Jallow founded Action for Humanity in in 2017, to provide financial and practical aid for refugees in Libya.

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