The donation ceremony took place at the Presidential Lodge, Hill station in Freetown on Tuesday, 21 October, 2014.
The Public Relation Officer of the Mariatu Foundation, Ibrahim Bangura, said the fight against the dreaded Ebola disease is not limited to the Government of Sierra Leone alone, as according to him, it is now a global concern. He said the Foundation was hugely involved in ensuring that the education and awareness raising campaign impacts nationally as a measure to contain the spread.
According to him, they donated items to the First Lady’s Office worth millions of Leones, adding that this was because the First Lady, Mrs. Sia Nyama Koroma has been very instrumental in taken a leading role to eradicate the Ebola virus. He said the donated item were primarily for quarantined homes and other Ebola hot-spot areas across the country.
Giving a brief background of the Mariatu Foundation, Ibrahim Bangura said the Foundation was founded in 2009 with the sole aim of providing support to the less privileged Sierra Leonean children. He went on to say that the founder, Madam Mariatu Kargbo is a Sierra Leonean with a humble parental background, adding that she had her early education at the Ahmadiyya Muslim Secondary School, Kissy Dockyard in Freetown.
He said: “Mariatu is also an entertainer and a model that has lifted the country’s flag internationally, thus her activities have made Sierra Leone to be recorded in the Guinness Book of Records, 2012.”
She further disclosed that Madam Kargbo is the former Miss Sierra Leone who represented Sierra Leone at the Miss World Beauty Pageant show in South Africa in 2009.
“She is currently based in China where she has won several laurels in the field of fashion, modeling and music,” said Mr. Bangura, adding that she has raised millions of Leones in her quest to help the disadvantaged people and impoverished homes in the country during this national crisis.
Mr. Bangura noted that plans are underway to support the Government in the ongoing Ebola fight, reiterating that they intend extending similar gesture to vulnerable children whose parents died of the Ebola disease.
He further added that Madam Kargbo has over the years donated a huge consignment of school materials, sewing machines, one thousand uniforms and four hundred foot wears to members of the Polio Association at Grafton
Similar donations were made to the International Pentecostal Orphanage Primary School at Grafton, and has also made similar Amadiyya Muslim Secondary School where he donated a football, school band and a huge consignment of uniforms the school which happens to be her alma mater,.
