THE FUNDATION OF PANHECS
A meeting was organized and scheduled to take place at Osman’s house in Ratingen.
It was in September 1997 when we met to talk about this issue.
I was then appointed as interim Whip and took the responsibility with other members to lead the new association to a formal and registered status.
Based on the input of all participants, We succeeded in compiling a constitution for the association to be. A series of meetings was held to assure the stability of the association.
In one particular meeting, it was finally achieved to have a name and an approved constitution for the association.
Finding a name for the association was not easy at all, as many people came up with different suggestions. This forced all of us to support the idea of voting for the name of the association.
Gbanabom threw in a suggestion.
The suggestion was to call the association »PANHECS« which means:
P – Promotion
A – Advice
N – National
H – History
E – Economy
C – Culture
S – Social
This name reflects the aims and objectives of the association. Competing with so many other name suggestions, the suggestion won the majority of the votes and the association was called PANHECS.
Once we had an association with an approved constitution, executive members were to be elected.
Election was held and Gbanabom was elected as the first president of the association.
He accepted the presidency position, which was to last for two years, and vowed to do his best to work for the achievement of the aims and objectives of PANHECS.
This was the time I came to be close to Gbanabom and other members who were honest right away and saw us as the best team to do the job.
We based our decision on our achievements within a very short time in interim position.
Since then, i was at that time an elected whip, and was very much interested in the progress of the association and most importantly,
i was the only member who was always ready to accompany Gbanabom to offices to clear our issues related to PANHECS.
By so doing, we became very close friends and, moreover, the guarantees for success of the association.
Under his leadership, members were happy and they were not alone as PANHECS was always there to support them in various ways.
Below is a list of a few things we achieved while he led the association:
• A nice meeting place called AUXILUM in Düsseldorf was located
• Quick job applications were created for those who were jobless
• Family celebrations, e.g. birthdays, marriages, »fourty days« ceremonies
(after the death of a relative) etc. were supported
• A bank account was opened
• Weekly coffee and games activities were encouraged. Music equipment,
TV and video, games like Ludo, »Draft« etc., African instruments,
e.g. drums, were provided by PANHECS.
• A healthy relationship between the Sierra Leone Embassy and PANHECS
was secured.
• A lawyer for PANHECS was provided.
• Organization of very interesting parties, workshops, etc.
• Good promotion strategies were adopted.
• Nice identity cards were introduced to identify PANHECS members
• Nice contribution books for all members to control contributions made by them to the association.
My experience with PANHECS was a wonderful one. I learnt many positive things, especially the ability to understand different people and to listen to people when they talk. Besides, I also learnt how to respect people and express concern for their feelings. This could be a hidden positive factor to my strong drive to the vision.
Two years passed in a very quick way and it was time for another election.
Although in terms of work, we were convinced that we did a wonderful job for PANHECS, we were not satisfied with the way things were developing.
However, it was our interest to see PANHECS in good hands. This motivated some to openly express their wishes to see Abdul Fadul as the next president of PANHECS. The reason was clear: I was the only person who had tried to understand the association and most importantly, he was the one who was ready to invest my time to work for the association. he was not the only person who saw things this way. Most other members also felt that he was the best-qualified candidate. To our dismay, he was elected as vice president.
The situation constantly became worse until it reached a peak which forced him to resign from PANHECS as a member in the year 2000.
Ashe resigned, some members also resigned. Resigning was really not easy for some of us since we had been the core members of PANHECS.
Resigning from the association was for us just like struggling hard for a child to grow and then having to let him go astray at a crucial stage of his life.
We knew that PANHECS needed us at that time, but the circumstances which led to our resignation were beyond our control. We had been pushed around too much and we had no alternative but to resign. The main reason for our resignation was to avoid a situation which might even have led to something unpredictable. Members were really out of control at one point in time, and they enjoyed coming to meetings to abuse respectable people in the presence of their wives and even children.
There is a popular saying in our home country,
»The value of a tree is never known until it is cut down«.
As Africa is a hot continent, trees always prove very helpful when the place is really very hot.
People sit under trees to cool themselves and protect themselves from the hot sun.
Since our resignation, PANHECS’ development stagnated, and this bred a boring atmosphere within the association which scared many members away. A few members realized that they had made a big mistake to push us too much to the corner and tried to find ways to get us back into the association. Their efforts to do so did not change our minds, however, because we had thoroughly thought our decision through. Of course, we expressed our readiness to help people if we could, but the idea to join PANHECS again was completely unthinkable.
The time he was no more a member of PANHECS and thus not really engaged in any social activity, he decided to focus more on writing with a friend called Gbanabom. Since there are more opportunities to sell books in the world.
We published in Germany a book in English called:
“GET RICH FOR THE POOR“ and a music album.
ISBN: 9783000222771
In German: “REICHTUM FÜR DIE ARMEN“
ISBN: 9783000222764
you can get this books in any bookshop worldwide.
Towards the end of 2000, we decided to work on another organization.
We were, however, very careful about how we should go about establishing this organization.
We therefore spent months to find out why many African organizations keep collapsing.
Our analysis always led us to the same reason: The members of African organizations don’t really know the essence of their organizations and never appreciate the work of the main people behind the functioning of their institutions.
Worst of all, they always tend to consider an organization as their private property and a place for them to show that they are better off.
This element of inferiority complex is the key to the downfall of such organizations.
The name “PANHECS“ has been change to “THE SIERRA LEONE COMMUNITY NRW e.V.” in Germany, where Mr. Abdul-Fadul Kamara is the Chairman.
I am happy to be part of the new Community and my advice to you out there is, come on come all and join us and be part of 21st century.
THE SIERRA LEONE COMMUNITY NRW e.V. GERMANY