World Vision Sierra Leone has donated Le 30 million worth of relief items through the National Disaster Management Agency (NMDA) to Prosperity Girls High School in Rotifork, Moyamba District. According to the National Director for World Vision Sierra Leone, Sagane Thiaw items donated are to respond quickly to the fire disaster that occurred sometime in February this year at the Prosperity Girls High School in Moyamba. The handing ceremony of the relief items was held on Thursday 3 March at the World Vision National Office in Freetown.
Briefing staff from the NDMA, the Health Advisor for World Sierra Leone, Saffa Andrew Koroma said their gathering was to support the government of Sierra Leone through the NMDA based on some of their core programs they are undertaken, adding that for them at World Vision, their mandate is to support humanitarian affairs, developed transformation and advocacy as the three main mandate they stand for.
Handing over the relief items to the team of NDMA, the National Coordinator for World Vision Sierra Leone, reiterated that “as an international, our organization has three key pillars, development, relief and advocacy,” and all these three pillars he said are geared towards promoting the well-being of children, adding that their vision is for every child lives usefulness and they are there to help every human being to realize their usefulness.
He further said that as part of their mandate in relief, they work in disaster management precisely in terms of risk reduction, building the capacity of the community in disaster reduction, preparing the community in the event that there is a disaster what to do, what is required in terms of actions, system and so on.
The National Coordinator for World Vision said as an organization, they work with the agenda of the government and that as part of their mandate to reach out to vulnerable communities, they are currently working in six districts in their development programs in Bo, Bonthe, Pujehun in the South, Koinadugu Falaba in the North and Kono in the East.
He said disaster when occurred, man-made or natural, as part of their mandate, everywhere in the country they have to be alongside the government and the international community to bring out their support and this moved them to support the request from the NDMA when the Prosperity Girls High School in the Moyamba District experienced fire outbreak somewhere in February this year.
He disclosed that the relief items were worth over Le 30 million. ‘The materials include 28 pieces of bed sheet and pillows, sanitary pads 14 dozen, blankets 28 pieces, bathing soaps 40 dozen and 28 pieces of foams” he highlighted.
Receiving the items, the Deputy Director for Relief and Response of the NDMA, Mr. Brewah acknowledged that the donationS were not a surprise to the NDMA, noting that World Vision has been around for quite some time in Sierra Leone and that all the experiences have been positive. He intimated that when they got the call from the burning of the school, they called a meeting and informed their development partners and in which World Vision participated which is the result of what they received.
Giving a brief history of the setting up of the NDMA, the Deputy Director informed that disaster management used to be a small unit under the Office of National Security, explaining that the President was campaigning in the 2018 general election, he actually promised that he will divorce disaster management from the Office of National Security and create a stand-alone agency which is why they have the NDMA today.
“And through his words, we are here today as NDMA. It has been a herculean task, we are barely year-old but we have done a lot notwithstanding, but with help of World Vision and other NGOs. For last alone we responded to 127 disaster calls country-wide and we were able to respond to 99 because the cut-off was November last year and so all other calls we got in 2021 were rolled over to 2022” he explained.
Brewah thanked World Vision for their gesture and called on other development partners to emulate the good work of World Vision. He assured World Vision that they would use the items for the intended purpose.
BY MOHAMED AMARA GANDO
