Somalilandsun: VOLUNTEERS are needed to maintain the friendship link between Henley and Borama.
The Henley Borama Friendship Association was founded in 1983 by Malcolm Page who recently moved into a care home so people are needed to take over.
Town manager Helen Barnett told a meeting of the town council’s events sub-committee that it needed someone with enthusiasm.
She said: “The Borama friendship group was started by Malcolm Page, who is a brigadier and served there. They have squares and roads named after Henley.
“At the moment the committee of one is Malcolm and he is now in a care home. It is now about finding new blood.”
The town held its first annual Borama Comes to Henley event in Market Place in 2014 and this was repeated in 2016, 2017 and 2019. It was called off in 2018 because Borama was hit by a tropical cyclone.
Last year, about 40 representatives from the friendship association performed African singing and dancing at the bandstand on Mill Meadows.
Councillor Kellie Hinton said a mayor hadn’t visited Borama since the Eighties because it was difficult to get to as Somaliland was not recognised as a country by any government.
She said: “There was a little more interest after the cyclone but you can’t have a group that’s based on a natural disaster. Henley seems to be the only place that recognises it.
