FAO Rep, Dr. Rugalema hands keys to EOC’s Gaojia
As part of its support tothe national Ebola response plan, the United Nations delegation in Sierra Leone on Thursday donated 89 vehicles to help facilitate movement during the three days Ebola ‘Ose to OseTok’.
On behalf of the Resident Coordinator, Country Representative for the Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, Dr. Gabriel Rugalema, said the Ebola outbreak had the tendency to cause a serious challenge to the country’s development strides. He advised that massive mobilisation was required for its containment.
He commended government for their effort towards containing the Ebola menace and pledged the UN’s “unflagging support to the government to overcome the current situation”.
Deputy health minister, Madina Rahman, said the donation was “timely as it will greatly help to expedite the movement of people engaged in the sensitisation and surveillance exercises throughout the country”.
She expressed gratitude to the UN family for their continued support to the government and people of Sierra Leone in the fight against the Ebola Virus Disease.
Coordinator of the Emergency Operations Centrein Freetown, Stephen Gaojia, said the vehicles were distributed across the country based on the need but that they were mainly meant for surveillance officers, rapid response teams, contact tracers and other community leaders involved in the process.
Gaojia confessed that preparations for the three days lock down were a bit challenging, considering the short term schedule but that the vehicles went a long way to ease the transportation constraints of the entire process.
The ‘Ose to Ose Ebola Tok’ was scheduled with the aim of reversing the increasing trend of the disease transmission during which every home was to be visited by a team of volunteers comprising of medical personnel, civil society activists and a contact tracer.
(C) Politico 23/09/14
