By Mustapha Kamara and Jenneh Braima
One of Sierra Leone’s leading auditing firms, KPMG, has made a Le 50 million donation towards the sensitisation of disabled people on the deadly Ebola virus in 30 communities across the country.
The donation was made possible through Heal Sierra Leone, a local nongovernmental organisation.
The firm’s managing partner, Vidal Decker explained that the funds would be used to undertake the campaign and to purchase some plastic buckets, Dettol, chlorine and other disinfectants.
He noted that it was part of their corporate social responsibility to provide funds for such activities.
“We want people, especially the disabled, to beware of the disease because they are more vulnerable,” Decker said and expressed hope that the sensitisation would help prevent the further spread of the virus.
Executive Director of Heal Sierra Leone, Joseph Sannoh, told Politico that they had organised training and sensitisation programmes on how to prevent and deal with Ebola cases. He said they had worked hard to promote disability issues in the country.
“We have never witnessed a workshop in which people with disability are trained on how they should prevent themselves against the deadly Ebola virus disease,” he said, adding that there was no taskforce to take up the responsibility of sensitising disabled people in different homes and communities in Sierra Leone.
Sannoh called on government and other NGOs to strike a partnership with Heal Sierra Leone so that “we can save the lives of our disabled compatriots”, noting that the disease was a difficult one to control “even with strategies being instituted by the government”.
(C) Politico 04/09/14
