By Mildred Christiana Saccoh in Makeni
Plan Sierra Leone, with support from the British Department for International Development (DfID) and Irish Aid, has donated food and non-food items to the hot spot areas in the Makarie Gbanti Chiefdom in Bombali District.
The items included bags of rice, replacement package for Ebola survivors, pure water, cooking condiments, palm oil, drinking buckets, home utensils and disinfectants.
The charity, with core areas of activity in country as education, health and economic security, said the gesture was to sustain about 6,000 households within the district through their project titled: “Reducing Transmission through Strengthening Community Acceptance of Restrictive Measures against the spread of Ebola”.
During the exercise, Plan’s Bombali Programme Unit Manager, Patrick Mahoi said the project was aimed at providing support to quarantined communities.
“It is also to respond to hotspot areas in the district so that beneficiaries would be provided with sufficient food and non-food items that would upkeep them during the period under quarantine. Food shortage is one of the factors responsible for those held in quarantined homes to go in search of food, thereby increasing the rate of infection in the district,” he said.
He added that although the project’s lifespan was four months they would endeavour that such objectives as “reducing inward and outward movement in quarantined homes, reducing noncompliance and resistance as a result of fear, keeping people abreast with proper knowledge on the disease, and building communication links between beneficiaries and stakeholders in the district” were met.
While appreciating the gesture, the headman of Mano village, Momoh Sesay, said they had been severely affected by the epidemic with at least 20 people already infected. He added that the Ebola scourge had hampered their farming activities, thereby leaving them with little or no food to feed their immediate family.
The youth leader of Gbasha village thanked the benefactor on behalf of the beneficiaries.
© Politico 16/12/14
