By Mabinty M. Kamara
As part of its celebration of two years of continuous feeding program for the mentally impaired destitute in Freetown, Social Workers Sierra Leone (SWSL), a non-governmental organization, is set to host a fund raising dinner on the 30th of October this year.
The event which will be hosted at the Sierra Palms Hotel is meant to help raise funds to enable the organization continued its support to their clients who have already been abandoned both by society and family.
A plate of food at the event will cost Le300, 000, with a maximum of five (5) persons per table, according to a statement issued by SWSL.
“Everyone can donate to this cause to raise funds to continue the Sunday Feeding Programme by ordering as many plates as possible,” the statement reads.
The Sunday Feeding Programme started on 9th September, 2018 with food prepared and delivered to 25 mentally ill homeless people. Volunteers of the organization walk through the streets of Freetown, starting from Siaka Steven Street and Kroo Town Road Junction (opposite Choithram’s Supermarket), towards Ecowas Street. They cover streets that feed into and run off Siaka Steven Street, serving the abandoned people hot meal.
“We started with the help of our initiator donor (who prefers anonymity) who provided funds to enable us to provide enough food to feed the above mentioned 25 people. Two years down the line, SWSL has been blessed with other individuals and public and private business sponsors who have helped us deliver over 9,000 lovingly prepared and packaged meals to our mentally ill and homeless service users,” the statement further reads.
SWSL says it chose Sunday among other days because of the restrictions on business. Many of the mentally ill homeless people feed by scavenging trash bins and leftovers food from people who are in town for business.
The organization said the programme later grew from feeding the mentally impaired people to include all homeless and poor, who are found along Siaka Steven Street and other feeder streets. It has since been expanded from lunchtime meal on Sunday to including breakfast, making two rounds a day at 10am and 1pm.
The goal of the organization is to further extend the Sunday Feeding Programme to a daily operation at a predetermined location, where the mentally ill and other homeless will go for three hot meals a day, including a fully equipped mobile clinic (ambulance) to cater for their pre-hospital/emergency health needs.
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