In order to mitigate these challenges, the One People Family Organization has doled out more than two hundred million Leones as grants to organizations dealing with children living with disability in the country. Giving out the fund to their partners in the form of cheques, the Executive Director of One Family Organization, Edward Emmanuel noted that the money is in fulfillment of his organization’s commitment to supporting persons living with disability in the country. He further said that their work is credible and transparent, which is why they work closely with institutions like the Ministry of Social Welfare among others.

The money is a fourth quarter grant that is expected to complete projects that were begun by their implementing partners in their respective districts, since the beginning of 2019.

Speaking on behalf of the Minister of Social Welfare, the Director of Social Welfare, Francis Kabbia thanked One People Family Organization for their relentless efforts in ensuring that the aims of the Ministry of Social Welfare to improve the conditions of persons living with disability through child empowerment in the country are achieved. He assured them of his Ministry’s continued support and commitment.

Mr. Kabbia urged the beneficiaries to use the money for its intended purpose, adding that this should not be business as usual, where organizations use public funds for personal gain. He told the beneficiaries to not use their disability as a reason to misappropriate public funds. Hence, he said, the ministry will not take it lightly with anybody that fails to properly account for the money received.

Speaking on behalf of his colleagues one of the receivers of the grant, Samuel Ngaujah said they have been longing to receive the money for a while now, but thanks to God, the money has been handed over to them successfully. He added that even the children and their parents are very concerned as to when the money was going to be available and that no amount of words will be enough to say thank you to One Family People Organization for the gesture.

“My organization is currently supporting 75 disabled children, some are into auto mechanic, computer engineering while some are university students,” he noted. He maintained that that only 5% of the money received is going to be used for administrative purposes while the remaining 95% would go into completing projects that have already begun.