By Umaru Fofana
Today - Monday 17 October 2016 - I travelled to Mile 91 to follow up on Zainab Kamara, the disabled (cripple) woman - a single parent with four children of her own. She has no income besides a backyard garden.
A short video about this woman in her 30s awakened the humanity and altruism in hundreds of Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad who saw it and offered to help. Click here for who she is and her circumstance: <http://www.politicosl.com/articles/love-cripple-mother-four>.
I was joined again on this trip today by Alpha Kargbo the journalist whose video brought her plight to the spotlight. We have now opened a Trust Fund for her and her four children whom we visited in school. Bank details in a moment.
We also opened a personal current account for her and drove her to the bank to collect her photo ID as people watched in amazement. She was very excited even if that was tempered with the fact that she’s a bit unwell.
Zainab suffers from a severe cold because of the wet weather condition at this time of year, made worse by the harsh conditions under which she and her children live. Her five-year-old son is also unwell. Such is her situation that when it is hot, the blistering heat hurts her palms and knees which she uses to walk - she crawls. And when it is wet like it has been in Mile 91 lately, she moves in mud. How pathetic!
So payment was made to a thatcher to re-thatch her residence. The sticks are ready and the fronds will be ready in a day or two for work to happen. It is a same-day job because the whole building has to be unroofed.
Joined by Hassan Y Koroma who is the manager of a local radio station there and a co-signatory to the Trust Fund (the other being Zainab herself), we went to her children’s schools and made an undertaking to be paying their fees and all school-related expenses henceforth.
We spoke to the headteachers of the RC Boys’ Primary School where her two sons attend, the RC Girls’ Primary School of her young daughter, and the Ansarul Islamic Secondary School where her eldest 15-year-old daughter attends.
We also visited the Mile 91 Town Chief who was very kind to agree to allow Zainab access to a plot of land she had acquired through someone who apparently defrauded her. However, in the judgement of many the plot is a bit far away from the town. So while documentation work is being done on that, we are also looking for a more centrally-located plot for her safety and for the safety of the children.
Talking about their safety, because of recent visits to her by car-driving people, she says thieves have been making attempts to burgle her home. So a new door lock has been fixed to the house, and we advise all to leave their vehicles far behind whenever they go to visit her.
There is also a battery-powered lantern for the children to study in the otherwise pitch-dark single room they are crammed in.
Please help with whatever amount you can to help this disabled single parent take care of herself and her children. “Helping me educate my children to get to university will be like giving me my legs to walk instead of crawl”, Zainab says. To keep the children in school obviously means paying their fees, buying their books and uniforms and other learning materials. But it also means providing the basics for Zainab such as a small house and a business lest her children should become urchins or even criminals and sex workers. bad for them bad for the community and bad for Sierra Leone.
Here are the bank details plus foreign funds transfer routing details and God bless you for your golden heart:
Account Name: Zainab Kamara Trust Fund
Account No.: 210-049-956-01
Union Trust Bank
Freetown, Sierra Leone
If you are contributing from abroad:
Account No.: 210-049-956-01
Swift Code: UTBSSLFR
Intermediary Bank: Ghana International
1 st Floor, 10 Old Broad Street
London EC2 N1DW
United Kingdom
Swift Code: GHIBGB2L
Photos: Driving Zainab to the bank
Copyright (c) Politico 2016
