By Mustapha Kamara Jnr
The international charity, Irish Aid, has commissioned a tailoring centre for a group of amputees in a bid to boost their income generating capacity.
The all-amputee football team, the Flying Stars, based at the Amputee Camp at Aberdeen, west of Freetown would run the centre, estimated over Le20 million.
The package included ten sewing machines, two irons, tables, and other accessories.
The gesture was part of a project by the Irish Aid that commenced in December 2015 to provide jobs for persons with disabilities. The goal, according to the program officer of Irish Aid, Gibril Kargbo, was to help alleviate poverty in the country.
“Our mandate is to support [the] United Nations agencies and other international non-governmental organisations that support the government of Sierra Leone,” Kargbo said.
He said Irish Aid believed that the project would contribute significantly to the socio-economic development of the county.
“We believe the project will help to build the capacity of vulnerable disable people, especially women in the country,” Kargbo added, expressing optimism that the amputee group would likely benefits from another support from the charity organisation if the ongoing project turns out successful.
In this regard, he advised the organisation to properly manage the projects so that it would be sustainable and that they would be able to extend it to other parts of the country.
Chairman War Wounded Association, Edward Kargbo, thanked Irish Aid for the initiative. He said the association had over 2000 members who had been neglected by Sierra Leoneans and by both previous and present governments since the end of the 11 years over a decade ago.
“Just last year we lost 134 amputees because they were neglected,” Conteh lamented, and called for more support from both government and other aid organisations.
Mohamed Kamara, vice president of Flying Stars Football Club, promised Iris Aid that they would take full ownership of the program and would ensure its success.
“We would go to the street and encourage our colleagues, who are out there in the street begging because they have no skill or job, to come to the tailoring centre and learn skills in tailoring,” Mohamed Kamara said, adding that they would use part of the money accrued from the project to support their football team.
(C) Politico 19/01/16
