By Mohamed T Massaquoi
World Vision International Sierra Leone, Pujehun branch, has donated assorted items for the Interim Care Centre for Ebola orphans and other
marginalized children.
The gift is worth one hundred and two million, six hundred and forty-eight thousand Leones (Le 102,648,000).
The interim care center was set up by the Ministry of Gender, Social Welfare and Children`s Affairs to provide shelter and care for
children who survive the Ebola virus disease and those who lost parents that succumbed to the virus on a temporary basis.
Some of the items donated by World Vision were blankets, mattresses, bed sheets, and towels, among several others. The organization said
the gesture was aimed at ensuring quality life for the children.
The main focus of World Vision is to see children living a quality life like other categories of human beings, said Nasu J. Gbenga, the
charity`s 'gift-in-kind point-person' attached to its Pujehun office.
She told the donation ceremony that they would continue to offer their fullest support to Sierra Leonean children in all spheres of life as
that is one of their main mandates as a humanitarian organization. She encouraged the Gender, Children and Social Welfare ministry to take
proper care of the donated items and strongly admonished them to use them for the intended purposes.
Gbenga also told the ministry that proper monitoring mechanisms would be put in place by her organization for the sustainability of the
items, adding that this was just the beginning and that much would be done with time.
According to her, World Vision had been active in terms of supporting development activities in the entire district.
On his part, the social services officer attached to the ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children's Affairs in Pujehun, Alhaji
Mansaray, commended the benefactor for their kind donation, adding that they were aware of their development initiatives in the district
as much has been done even with regards to the Ebola outbreak in the entire country.
Mansaray told politico that the outbreak of Ebola in the district left over two hundred children orphaned, and that most of them were from
Dumagbe in the Makpele Chiefdom. He assured World Vision that the items would be used for their intended purposes.
Mansaray also cited the high level of teenage pregnancy in the district as a result of the epidemic. He feared that over one hundred
of such cases are being compromised at homes and pleaded to paramount chiefs across the district to help ensure that perpetuators are
prosecuted. He blamed the situation on a lack of resident magistrates in the whole of Pujehun District.
© Politico 15/01/15
