By Mabinty Kamara
Concern Worldwide, an international charity which played an active part in the national Ebola response effort, has officially handed over the Kingtom Ebola cemetery to the Freetown City Council (FCC).
Kingtom is located in the west end of Freetown.
Fiona Mclysaght, Country Director of Concern Worldwide, said at the handing over ceremony that the safe and dignified burial policy played a crucial role in stopping the spread of the Ebola epidemic in the country. Seeing the handing over of the cemetery as not an end in itself, she appealed to FCC to maintain and regard the cemetery as “a memorial of the Ebola epidemic” as well as ensure retention of the Ebola burial workers.
“The cemetery will be the physical legacy of our work and everyone’s work,” she said.
The Concern Worldwide boss told Politico in an interview later that 44% of corpses buried in the king Tom cemetery were under-five children. She noted that out of a total of 6, 395 graves, 641 were under-fives, and 1,244 still births. She attributed the deaths of children buried in the cemetery to the improper maternal health system in the country.
“Strong health policy should be put in place to reduce maternal mortality rate,” she said.
In her contribution, the cemetery manager at Concern, Sheena McCaan, outlined ‘dignity respect and concern’ as the principles Concern Worldwide stood for, and she noted that these were also the reason her organisation introduced the “safe and dignified burial” into the disposal of the Ebola corpses.
As a way of remembering the Ebola victims, the names of all those who succumbed to the virus have been inscribed on the graves except for a few who were unidentified.
“The cemetery is clean and the graves are all arranged in an orderly manner that family members can easily access their loved ones since they were not opportune to do so at the time of the burial. This is the result of the hard work of Concern Worldwide and its burial team,” McCaan said.
Mayor of the Freetown municipality, Franklyn Bode Gibson, assured the public that FCC would retain the Ebola burial workers and also continue to uphold the sanitary condition of the cemetery.
“As a council, we must keep the dignity of this place,” the mayor appealed.
Head of the Ebola burial team at Concern, James Sir Milton, called on government to support the council to maintain the cemetery, noting that it was “a symbol of sacrifices” they made to the nation.
(C) Politico 25/02/16
