By Saio Marrah
The Macpherson Foundation has donated food items and other basic commodities to the Monahin Orphanage home of disabled children at Grafton over the weekend.
The items donated include rice, cooking oil, Cartons of Tomatoe paste, onion, candies, and other basic things like diapers.
A representative of the foundation, Simeonette Pontis, said they decided to donate those specific items because of the home needs expressed by the care taker during their previous engagement.
She also noted that the founder, Emmanuel Sam Macpherson Junior has passion in helping children with mental disability and autism. This she said is the reason they decided to donate to the particular orphanage.
After the donation ceremony, Fontis informed journalists that the foundations established this year aims to provide access to education to the underprivileged children.
She said despite government is providing free quality education to children, which she said has helped lots of parents, yet the poverty rate in the country where some families live below two dollars a day, is challenging for some of the parents to afford and provide the basic needs that ensure their children can be successful in school.
She said basic needs like exercise and textbooks, transportation, housing, uniforms and writing utensils are all difficult for those parents to afford.
Another priority area she said they focus on is to ensure they cater for the needs of children with mental health issues.
Fontis said this is because “In Sierra Leone, children who exhibit symptoms of autism spectrum disorder, are often labelled as witches or wizards, and are victimized, abandoned, ridiculed, poisoned, drowned, or totally isolated from other children of the same family.”
She added:” Some of these children are taken to churches to cast out the demons of witchcraft in them. They are most times associated with ill luck for the family and a bad omen.”
She said the children often accused of those diseases, exhibit uncommon physical, mental, social, and behavioural characteristics.
Fontis said they include exhibiting intense tantrums, engaging in self injurious behaviours, aggression toward others, being obstinate, living in seclusion, engaging in ritualistic behaviours, and that some do not startle at loud noises, while others are over sensitive to loud noises.
Speaking on behalf of the owner of the orphanage, Melrose Mboyawa, , informed journalists that her mother is also a disabled and that is the reason she is passionate about taking care of children in similar circumstances.
After thanking the Macpherson Foundation for the donation, she called on government and other organisations to help them in addressing most of the problems they face in the orphanage.
The challenges she said include feeding and that most of the children are cannot move to ease themselves. There are 39 children at the home.
To climax the event, a dancing competition was staged to celebrate the birthday of one of the kids at the orphanage.
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