Mr. WIllIam Forster - Medical administrator
The first Methodist Missionaries came to The Gambia in 1821, since then the church has been involved in many activities which have sought to provide for the welfare and the education of the people of The Gambia.
The main areas of Methodist Church activity have been Ministerial, Education, Agricultural and Medical work. The first medical missionary from the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society was Edna Green, who served in The Gambia from 1926 to 1927. She set up a mother child clinic in Bathurst which lasted until 1940. There was some medical work undertaken in Sukuta in the 1930s and later in that same decade a small clinic was established at Cape Point.
Marakissa ClinIc
The medical work was revived in the 1960s when the Medical Research Centre (MRC) selected Marakissa as the centre for a research project into the eye disease Trachoma.
A Methodist layman, Mr. Edwards, was part of that research team and was so concerned about the general health of the people, that he approached the Rev. Ian Roach, (the then Chairman of the Methodist Church) and Mr. Emmanuel J.C. Rendall, who was the Methodist District Agent in Kombo Western Division, asking if the church would consider establishing some permanent medical provision.
Marakissa is 6 kilometres west of Brikama and the population of the village and the surrounding outreach areas is approximately 800. The main occupations are farming and cattle rearing. Different ethnic groups make up the total population having their own cultural values and beliefs.
Medical Work
In the late 1960s, medical care was started at Marakissa by a group of Gambian Methodists who paid weekly visits to the village to treat the sick. Charles Mendi, Bankole Coker and Mrs. Esther Sarr are associated with this pioneering venture. These Methodists paid weekly visits to the village to treat the sick.
The ministry was expanded in 1967 due to the high demand and need for medical care. A small unit was built and services were provided by Sister Blyth Brown a missionary nurse who was stationed at Marakissa.
Expanded Programme
In 1984 a nutrition unit was added due to the poor nutritional status of children, additional clinics were also established at Sifoe, Jiboro Koto and later Sohm and Makumbaya in that order.
Because of the increase in patient flow a much bigger facility was inaugurated at Marakissa in 1990. From 1964 to 1994, the work was headed by missionaries from Britain and Ireland. From 1994 to date, West African Staff have headed the work. With limited resources, there has been limited medical provision and often times obvious medical needs have been left unmet, because there has been no sustainable way for the Methodist church to provide the care needed.
The Medical Board is aware of the limited services that the clinic can offer and is constantly seeking to find ways of improving service provision.
From the mid 1990s the need for the provision of dental care in the Kombo Western Division was identified, and in 1998, dental treatment was offered at Marakissa Clinic once a fortnight by dentist Pamela Esangbedo and Sister Lucy Sarr. The life span of this service was short lived because of the limited resources available.
In 1999 a proposal was put to the Gambia Christian Council to use development money from the World Council of Churches to set up a dental clinic in Brikama and in the year 2000 the request was granted. On March 19th 2006 the dental clinic was officially commissioned at the Brikama Methodist Church compound led by the Chairman and General Superintendent Rev. Norman Grigg and the Medical Board Chairman Prof. Tumani Corrah.
The Present Medical Work
The Marakissa Clinic (Methodist owned and run) is located in the heart of the village and has a catchment population of 1,130 according to the 1993 census. The available information also gives a male and female population distribution of 40%, 60%. The age distribution of this population is not available.