By Septimus Senessie in Kono
Street Child Sierra Leone has assisted 70 street and vulnerable children in over 15 primary schools with a year tuition fees each, learning materials and uniforms at their Kono district office in Koidu Town.
District coordinator of the charitable nongovernment organisation, Rebecca Tida Sesay, told Politico that the package was meant for 50 girls and 20 boys in the district.
She said the three-year project was funded by the British Department for International Development, DfID, and within which period they would be dealing with at least 500 street and vulnerable children in the district alone and 30,000 nationwide.
Sesay pointed out that the initiative had come into being prior to a research conducted by DfID some three years ago that “in Sierra Leone there were 20,000 street children across the country who were not in school” which he said informed the project. He urged parents of the beneficiaries to monitor the activities of their children both at home and in school and assured that they would only give business grants to parents who properly took care of their children.
Social Development Officer at the Social Welfare Ministry in Kono, Mabinty Mansaray, thanked Street Child “for especially representing the government of Sierra Leone in promoting education among the growing numbers of children in the district.”
She, however, expressed dissatisfaction over lateness of pupils to school in the district, describing it as “indiscipline and carelessness on the part of the parents and teachers.”
The line manager at the police Family Support Unit at Tankoro, Sergeant Tamba Lebbie Keimbay, advised parents of the beneficiaries to desist from “subjecting your children to hard labor and cruelty,” saying it was a crime punishable by law.
© Politico 17/10/13
