Dear Gambian Frontline Worker,
I salute you with utmost respect and the deepest empathy, bearing in mind that you may just be one of the most hardworking health workers in the world right now. Yet you are certainly the lowest paid and the worst looked after COVID-fighter the world over.
Yet I implore you to take heart, reinforce your resolve and give it your all in this fight against the coronavirus pandemic. I know that your government has failed you and disparaged your image in front of the whole world. Certainly, you do not feel the presence of your President and you are disappointed at his ominous silence in this most trying of all times in the evolution of our health care system.
Despite the foregoing constraints and genuine concerns, I am appealing to you to keep up the good work you are doing and to work even harder in solidarity with your colleagues at the frontlines.
Your government may not reward or commend you the way you deserve, but your service is not for them. Please respond to the biblical injunction as taught in Galatians, 6: 9 “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
Verily, the Bible teaches us some great wisdom in Colossians as well “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” It shall be well, inshaa Allah.
You are serving your own brothers and sisters and your service will never go unrewarded in the higher realms of our spiritual reality. Truly the Quran is right as clearly asserted in verse 115 of Surah Hud, “And be steadfast in patience; for verily Allah does not allow to be lost the reward of those who do good.”
In parting, I solemnly implore you to remain focused on your job and to always remember that those nations that surmounted dangerous crises and rose to greatness, did so on the back of painful and costly sacrifice by their own sons and daughters.
You have the goodwill and prayers of all patriotic Gambians. On their behalf I share below some verses of solidarity and encouragement:
COVID FIGHTER
Go get this COVID virus
Snuff it out in a rush
Keep shooting and do not relent
Yours is the effort to treat the patient
The healing magic is God’s providence
In your effort is our succour
We live today in hope we pray
Tomorrow is not in our sway
But God does bless the work of the prey
Keep it going be strong I pray
Take the spirit of the Kenyan women
Whose symbol manifested in Parliament
Wangari Maathai saved a generation
The Greenbelt Movement holds her in veneration
Every nation needs heroes for salvation
In this situation we seek your intervention.
God bless you all ?
Momodou Sabally
Former S.G and Head of the Civil Service
