By Mabinty M. Kamara
The European Union has facilitated the launch of a project designed to help residents of the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown, cope amidst the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
The project, titled: ‘EU Stand with Salone,’ which is worth 2.23 million euros, is meant to support residents in the capital amidst the Corona virus pandemic.
A consortium of civil society groups, led by the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), is coordinating the implementation of the project in partnership with the Freetown City Council.
A joint press release issued by the European Union, the CRS and FCC noted that the project would also support the needs of the most vulnerable segment of society: the estimated 350,000 residents of the 68 informal urban settlements.
“More specifically, the action will contribute to the upgrading of health facilities and the creation of two new basic emergency obstetric and newborn care facilities to ensure pregnant and lactating mothers and their babies receive dedicated and adequate health care even at most difficult times. It will equip and manage three new isolation camp; containment centers and support effective community level contact tracing for confirmed cases, notably in the slums,” the statement reads in part.
To contain the spread of Convid-19, the project will support a 1-year provision of water and sanitation, hand-cleaning and personal protective equipment to the city public health units (PHU), isolation centers and public markets. It will ensure that the 42 public markets of Freetown are regularly disinfected and adopt physical distancing and emergency protocols. Face masks are being provided to all the municipal market vendors and their children.
The project, according to the press statement, will be managed by the consortium manager, Catholic Relief Services, and implemented under the coordination of FCC through local organizations like Caritas Freetown (CF), Federation of Rural and Urban Poor/Centre of Dialogue on Human Settlement and Poverty Alleviation (FEDURP/ CODOHSAPA), the Sierra Leone Red Cross (SLRC) and the Aberdeen Women’s Center (AWC).
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