He said among the items that were presented to the 250 children were reading, learning and hygiene materials including 4 core text books, 12 exercise books, pens, crayons, pencils, geometry set, ruler, paste, brush, soap and uniforms.
The following schools within the affected communities also benefitted from hand washing and teaching materials, which include stools, ‘veronica’ buckets, liquid soap, Clorox, chalks, dusters, board rulers and school registers. The schools are: Bethel Pre-Primary School, Greps Elementary, Amana Salam Bin Nasser Islamic, Aliya Preparatory and Malama Kaningo Pre Primary Schools.
He revealed that helping the children with those materials will give them the courage and energy to focus in their education and to ensure that they had a better life.
He maintained that when the mudslide/flood struck on the 14th August 2017 in Freetown, it caused the death of almost 1000 people and many people unaccounted for.
He revealed that there was a need to ensure proper Water Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) situation in the affected communities as a means to ensuring that there is no further outbreak of water borne related diseases, especially cholera.
He admitted that the demand for water in the flood affected communities was high especially in Regent, Pentagon, Kamayama, Kaningo, Culvert, Bomeh and its environs.
Dumbuya revealed that with support from UNICEF and DFID they were able to cope up with the high demand of water in the flooding affected communities, even though the process of water trucking was unable to solve the situation due to the difficult terrain. Such challenges posed the need for alternative source for the provision of clean water, such as explore rain harvest attached with water household treatment, borehole with submersible pump and provision of hygiene and sanitary materials.
To accomplish this, he said, three (3) new boreholes with submersible pumps attached with 30 taps was constructed in Gbambayilla, Pentagon and Kamayama, 1200 water storage tank of 200 to 300 litres rain harvest installed in affected households, 1 VIP communal latrines rehabilitated, 2000 buckets, 20000 aqua tabs and hygiene materials distributed to over 5200 affected people in these communities.
Furthermore, he said, they were able to establish a program to promote proper environmental safety, sanitation, and hygiene practices. This, he said, has been done through stakeholder engagement and with the community people in the project areas, in order to foster active participation, inclusion and accountability, related to WASH service delivery and sustainability.
