By Mabinty M. Kamara
The Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD) has begun distribution of food and non-food items as support to District Coronavirus Emergency Response Centers (DiCOVERC) across the country.
The gesture, the organization said, is meant to boost the operations of the DICOVERCs and support the communities they operate in to effectively prevent themselves against COVID-19.
The donated materials were acquired with funding from the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace or D&P. The charity says the gesture is meant to complement the efforts of the government in its fight against the viral pandemic.
The items donated included 50kg bags of rice, onions, gallons of cooking oil, Infection Prevention Control (IPC) materials like soap, buckets and facemasks, as well as COVID-19 awareness raising messages in the form of banners and megaphones. The audio messages are in various local languages, including Krio, Mende, and Kono, depending on the beneficiary community.
A total of five districts: Bo, Moyamba, Kono, Tonkolili and Kenema are to benefit from the donations. The distribution process started in Moyamba and Bo districts in the southern region last week (July 24 to 25).
Presenting the items to the Moyamba DiCOVERC, Emmanuel Gbondo, Project Officer at NMJD, said that the gesture came as a result of a needs assessment that was done in the communities by the community animator attached to the district. He said during the assessment they realized that there was the need to support some quarantine homes and the community as a whole in the district.
Receiving the items on behalf of the Moyamba DiCOVERC, Joseph Kaindoh, the DiCOVERC Coordinator, applauded NMJD for the support extended to his district.
“We are very grateful to NMJD for thinking about our district. Indeed there were quarantine homes here as your needs assessment rightly proved, but they have just been discharged early this month and fortunately we didn’t lose any life from there. That notwithstanding, your gesture is timely as the councilor of one of the wards you have targeted have made request for hand washing materials,” he said.
Theresa Dick, Public Relations Officer of the Moyamba DiCOVERC, noted that the banners printed by NMJD were in conformity with the messages designed by the National Coronavirus Emergency Response Center (NACOVERC).
At the distribution of the donated items in Mokanji, Lower Banta Chiefdom, Henry S. Johnny, Town Chief, noted that it was the first time they were receiving such help from any organization since the pandemic emerged in the country.
“This is the first time we are receiving such gestures from any organization including the government. So we are very happy that this organization has continued to be with us to ensure that the mining companies do the right thing and now, during this problem, they are here to ensure that we are safe,” he said.
Maseray Sarah Fatorma, one of the beneficiaries and, until recently, a quarantine resident, told Politico that she was very happy to see that the donated items were brought for them, citing the suffering they underwent during quarantine.
“I am the one that went to Falaba, but when I returned, they said I was from Guinea. So I was quarantined with my family members and during that time everybody abandoned us, except for one of my sisters who will find food, wrap it in plastic bag and send for us to eat. Not even the government came to our aid,” she said.
Mokanji alone received bags of rice, gallons of cooking oil, salts, 40 set of veronica buckets and 300 pieces of facemask.
In Bo, Eric B. Jumu, former MP, who is the Social Mobilization Manager for the DiCOVERC, noted that the treatment center for the district had been ready to host patients but that it was yet to commence operation because of lack of the basic needs to facilitate the operations. He therefore extended gratitude to NMJD for the gesture.
“One of the delays why in fact the treatment center has not started operation is provision of food, mostly for staff in the treatment center and the patients themselves. This is an example, I am happy that a local NGO has done this much, though they are our external partners,” he stated, adding: “We have had a lot of people coming to listen to our pleas but for me, this is practical to have a local NGO, NMJD, to be the first to respond positively.”
Jumu added that Bo has one of the largest quarantine facilities in the country, established to accommodate over 1000 people. He said there had been a lot of issues when treatment was done at the 34 Military Hospital in Jui and in Lungi, where their people who proved positive were taken.
We saw the anguish in their faces. And their fear of the possibility of return was great. So now we have got the treatment center and we are now pushing to have a lab so that even testing can be done here,” he said.
Jumu added that the district had gone for almost a week without recording a new case, but he said that notwithstanding, there was the need for continuous sensitization and awareness raising hence the need for the megaphones and banners.
“I want to thank NMJD for being the first NGO to donate to our treatment center. I want to assure you that the donation will be used for its intended purpose,” he stressed.
In the nearby community of Kpanguma in Kakua Chiefdom, the organization donated 40 sets of hand washing buckets, four cartoons of liquid soaps, and 300 pieces of facemasks, as well as COVID-19 sensitization banner and megaphones
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Sierra Leone, NMJD has intervened in its operational communities in diverse ways through supports from its development partners.
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