Rich/Poor Divides Hill Station

The Hill Station community situated at the peak of the Freetown peninsula is a complete mix of the rich /poor divides localize in the Sierra Leonean setting and a showcase of gross manifestation of subtle human rights abuse in the country. Whilst the community boasts of having the best of mansions and comprises the richest and most influential in society it is equally inhabited by the poorest and most exploited group of people in society. For the rich people all are undoubtedly clock tickers and naturally would boast of white collar jobs. In the case of the poor, stone mining and manual labour in construction sites of  members of their direct opposite, the rich, is what their portion is. So while most will think that the Hill Station community is an epitome of wealth and development, underneath the subtle sights of wealth the suffering of mostly women, youths, and children glaring look at the faces of visitors that could be keen on the suffering and plight of a greatly advantaged group of vulnerable people living amidst the highly built mansions and display of wealth.

According to a careful observation by Human Rights journalists seeking to bring to the fore the precarious and ghastly living conditions of the poor at the Hill Station community, shows that most of those that are involved in the laborious stone mining activity at the said community are single parent (Mother) families eking out their living from the very painful mining of stones that are sold to those that are erecting mansions in the community. “Children of both school going age and below daily form part of the huge manual labour that is carried out in this community,” said a single parent mother called Bintu.  She explained that a lot of single parents live in that society simply to earn only their basic living (Feeding) out of stone mining and similar activities. Bintu said that it becomes tougher when our children get sick and there is nothing to take them to the hospital.

The appallingly life for the poor at the Hill Station community means that there is no tap borne water, no health centre, and virtually no proper toilet system. What the poor in the community cry about more is the prevalence of unsanitary situation at their Hill Top dwelling.  While it is expected that the rich in the community would help in the plight of the host of under averaged people living in the same community with them, or better still use their position to advocate their plight, continued exploitation is what has been the order of the day. So the community people according to the mother who spoke with SEM, do not trust their bets on the rich people in their community and would rather call on the help of humanitarian institutions to salvage their situation.

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