The Sierra Leone country director of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), Saffea Senessie has received the Sarlo Foundation Distinguished Humanitarian Service Awards for his “outstanding work” during the recent Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone.
The awards were established by the IRC global body in 2001 to honour IRC field workers and are given to those IRC staff whose “extraordinary dedication, sacrifice and achievement in serving the displaced and other victims of oppression and violent conflict have distinguished themselves and the IRC.”
Senessie becomes the first Sierra Leonean and third West African to win the awards which are given out by the IRC Global organisation to their field workers.
In late 2014 Sierra Leone was devastated by the Ebola outbreak which officially killed nearly 4,000 people.
The citation says Saffea and his colleague in Liberia “rapidly transformed their country programs [and] under their leadership, IRC staff accustomed to performing post-conflict development work were quickly redeployed to implement a comprehensive emergency response”.
He “demonstrated extreme courage, steadfast determination, and exemplary leadership” to lead his team in the fight against Ebola. He made dozens of challenging decisions almost every day balancing the protection of his staff with the mandate of the IRC to respond. His “leadership, commitment, creativity and determination” were also singled out.
(C) Politico 24/03/16
