Landing B. Sanneh, Chairman of Mansakonko Area Council, And the Staff Awarded Scholarships
By Buba Gagigo
The Mansakonko Area Council, led by Chairman Landing B. Sanneh, has awarded scholarships to seven of its staff members to study in Morocco and at the International Open University (IOU).
“We have a partnership agreement with our friends in Morocco. They extended this support to us through our partnership with them. Some of you will recall that we made various visits to Morocco to build this partnership, and this partnership is going to fly two of our staff to Morocco to study Executive Masters in City Management, which is fundamental. And in the same program, we are extending five scholarships to five of our staff (At the IOU); they have already received their scholarships. Among them is a female staff member who is going for a degree program and we will be opening an account for an existing Trust Fund Program to support education. Council is going to fund an initial amount of one hundred thousand for needy and deserving students. That is taxpayers money but the rest is sponsored fully,” Chairman Landing B. Sanneh said.
Chairman Sanneh also reflected on the council’s educational progress since his tenure began, noting that initially, only one staff member held a diploma.
“When we came, we understood that we succeeded without having the requisite capacity and competent staff to work and develop our council and develop our people. So education became very key for us to identify as a priority. And luckily, when we developed our strategy, education was very key. So we thought it was wise that charity begins at home; we have to build from within. We have to build the capacity of our staff. That was when we wrote a memo and opened an invitation to staff and councilors to look for educational opportunities and requests for support from the council. Through that, some of our colleagues went to MDI, and some went to UTG. After four years or five years, we have three people who finished their Master’s program, which includes myself,” the chairman said.
The chairman also highlighted that, for the first time in the history of Mansakonko Area Council, a female staff member recently completed her degree program.