As HIMS intervenes… rainy season scares disabled persons
Over 150 persons living with disabilities, including their dependents, are stranded at the moment having to sleep under leaking roofs at the House of Jesus for the Disabled on Wallace Johnson in Freetown. Three persons, including two children recently died due to cold-related sickness over the rainy season.
Highlighting the current challenges the disabled are faced with in the residential House of Jesus for the Disabled, Chairlady of House of Jesus for the Disabled, Kadija Kamara revealed to this writer that their major challenge at the moment has to do with rescue from the rains. She said most of their places leak when it rains, adding that they need tarpaulins to at least cover their roofs. She further expressed the need for government to assist them with a plot of land so that the vision of their supporter- Handsworth International Mission Services (HIMS) to build a settlement and a school will materialize. She emphasized that HIMS has been assisting them very dearly over the years but noted that other organizations have to come on board to give them more support to improve the condition of life of their members as the majority of them engage in street-begging for their livelihood.
National Director of HIMS, Mrs. Edna Paterson, has described the situation in House of Jesus as deplorable; needing urgent intervention by government, especially. She disclosed in an interview that her organization is moved by the bad condition the disabled were abandoned to live under. According to her, they have plans to empower their lives with income generating activities and settlement when land is fully acquired. She recalled that HIMS has got a tradition of rendering assistance to members of House of Jesus for the Disabled ranging from medical to financial support.
Mrs. Paterson is calling on the Ministry of Lands and Country Planning to look into the land issue between the House of Jesus for the Disabled and some people in Grafton who are said to been claiming the ownership of the land allocated to the disabled by the government of Sierra Leone.
By Ilyasa Baa
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