By Bampia James Bundu
Chairman of national council of paramount chiefs in Sierra Leone has said they will commit 10% of local tax revenue generated from people in all chiefdoms in the Moyamba district, south of Sierra Leone.
Speaking at a meeting with President Ernest Bai Koroma in Moyamba recently, Paramount Chief Charles Balaka Caulker, said though they had not received funding to fight Ebola they had already committed their efforts to tackling the disease in their district.
“We will do all we can as a district to ensure that we save our people from this virus. We will not wait for the government,” said PC Caulker, adding that they would be holding meetings with section chiefs and other community leaders to ensure they did not keep sick persons and corpses in their houses.
Chief Caulker said they were now regulating burials and that “nobody is allowed to handle or bury corpses until we give instructions.” He, however, called on the president to support paramount chiefs across that district so that they could effectively protect their people from Ebola. He said the lack of funding was a setback to their efforts in the battle against Ebola.
World Health Organisation coordinator in Moyamba district, Aminata Kobie,said they were working in partnership with the District Health Management Team to combat the virus in the district. She called on the President to help with more logistics for health workers, adding “bad roads, untimely release of funds and lack of ambulances are our major challenges.” She commended the district taskforce for mobilising the youths to man checkpoints day and night across the district.
President Koroma said government was doing all it could to ensure that logistics were provided for health workers, contact tracers, burial teams and the youths who were risking their lives to combat the Ebola virus. He urged paramount chiefs to commit more efforts to cut the chain of transmission of the disease in the district.
“We can defeat Ebola only if we cut the chain of transmission, avoid contacts, report all sick cases to hospitals and stop touching dead bodies,” he said, adding that the fight against Ebola had reached its second phase wherein government needed to put all modalities in place to combat the virus.
He called on the country to fight along with the British, Chinese, Cubans and others who had come to help eradicate the disease.
© Politico 07/11/14
