Montserrado County’s electoral district #1 Representative, Rugie Yatu Barry, has vowed to revamp major health facilities in the district. Representative Barry, who won the district’s highest seat on the now dissolved Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) ticket in the 2023 presidential and legislative elections, made the disclosure at a dialogue meeting with citizens, residents, local community leaderships and the District Development Council to identify projects.
The projects, when identified by the citizens, will be implemented by the Executive Branch of government through its responsible agency, Liberia Agency for Community Empowerment (LACE), using the US$100,000 allocated in the 2024 National Budget for each of the 73 electoral districts across the country as District Development Fund.
The lawmaker underscored that health remains a priority for her administration, and to this effect her office has made some significant gains in tackling the worsening conditions faced by the constituents over the years.
According to her, a recent assessment done by her team and her personal tour of those major health centers across the district revealed that the medical structures are without medication, which she said she believes is detrimental to her people, especially during the heat of the rainy season.
“It actually and always bothers me whenever I hear either the family members of a sick patient or health practitioners cry that there are no drugs to administer medication. We have gathered the challenges affecting the health sector in our district, and that is why we have decided to make health one of our major priorities,” Representative Barry asserted.
At the same time, Representative Barry disclosed that significant gains have been made in addressing the health crisis affecting residents of the district through her lobbying on the floor of the plenary of the House of Representatives.
“We have fought, and will continue to fight, for your well-being at the Capitol Building. Of course, we lobbied for the increment of Bensonville Hospital from US$25,000, which was in the draft national budget, to US$200,000, the current one. My colleagues understood my advocacy for you all and they listened to me in no time,” she said.
The lawmaker’s engagement with her people, which brought together over 250 community leaders and stakeholders in Bentol City over the weekend, focused on discussions relative to the way to use the US$100,000 in the national budget for the district.
“You have the power. You’re the affected, and so we will appreciate your identifying those major things or projects you want us to implement with this fund. As a people, our role is to identify the projects, then LACE will do the implementation,” Representative Barry notes.
According to her, US$90,000 of the US$100,000 will be used to implement the identified projects, while the remaining US$10,000 will be used by LACE for its operational and administrative cost.
Established July 22, 2004 through an Act of the National Legislature, LACE’s objectives are to improve the living standards of poor communities through the provision and strengthening of basic social services, and to promote a community-based approach in sub-project identification, preparation, implementation, administration and maintenance.
The agency does not implement community sub-projects, but co-operate with communities or other implementing bodies. It assists community-based organizations (CBOs) develop their technical and managerial capabilities in all aspects of sub-project activities.
Meanwhile, during the dialogue community leaders and dwellers from the two statutory districts in the district (Todee and Careysburg) unanimously identified different projects and made onward submission to the office of Representative Rugie Yatu Barry.
They further thanked the lawmaker for the engagement with her people, terming it timely, welcoming and the style of a visionary leader.
“Honorable, you have our support because this opportunity you provided to hear our challenges is rare. We pray that you continue this for the success of your leadership and our beloved district,” the constituents asserted.