Disunity and hatred amongst people can only breed underdevelopment and dislodge the peace and stabilitypeople enjoy in their communities and nations, says Fatou Matta Sanyang, the deputy governor of the West Coast Region.

Speaking at the annual general meeting of the Siffoe Village Development Committee (VDC) recently, the WCR deputy governor observed that when people are united and respect one another's opinion and view, it will lead to development and progress.

She told the VDC members of Siffoe that it is their responsibility to come up with projects that would benefit the community they are serving and to ensure that unity, respect and understanding are maintained and become the order of the day in the community. "My advice to the community and the VDC is that you must work in partnership and promote unity in the village, without which you can hardly achieve your target goals," she said, calling on the community to ensure taking ownership of the projects that they themselves implemented and those donated to them.

She also tasked the community elders to engage both the past and the present committee members into mature dialogue, emphasising that without genuine dialogue and negotiation between the people, the misunderstanding that exists between the two committees would be hardly solved. "Please bury your past differences and work towards a common understanding and the advanced development of the village," she urged.

Alhaji Kawsu Darboe, the chairman of the Siffoe VDC, said the meeting was aimed at discussing issues confronting the VDC and to layout plans for implementation. "We also want to discusshow to raise D1, 165,000 with the community, for the new water tank project," he added.

Presenting the audited report of the VDC, Bakary Jassey explained that out of twenty-two taps in the village, nineteen were audited as the other three were not functional. He revealed that the water committee collected D38, 000.50 while D3, 246 was used for transactions. He added that the committee's balance at the banknow stands at D34, 804.