The Hastings Skills Center Example shows disability is not inability
Before the war, little is heard of government’s and NGO’s efforts to make public campaign and offer money so generously to disabled persons, in fact very few institutions exist to care for it. The old ones still in existence are the blind school, the school for the Deaf and few others.
Post War Sierra Leone brought many in existence, for the amputated displaced and war child NGO’s from the international committee. Principal donors humanitarian Officers have open up Offices in Freetown, Oxfam, Concern World Wide, Medicos sin Frontera, Medicin San Frontier and the like.
Those who are affected by this trauma especially Youths are scattered all over the city soliciting from the public their daily meal. Few others are being cared for in our local humanitarian institutions some with support from their Western Allies. The number of affected Sierra Leoneans rise up into the thousands nationwide and government represented by NaCSAÂ is doing a good job in its rehabilitation and reparation process and building homes for affected families.
The Hastings Skills Center is founded by one Joseph Sandy disabled himself who hails from Moyamba. He left an settled at Calaba Town during the war in 1994. Joseph benefited from a free land distribution process by the previous government and subsequently secured a temporary location at Hastings Village where they erected a training centre for the disabled persons and the public.
The center with its twenty inmates success is due to the assistance receives from the public and the Youth Movement for Development (YMD) at Calaba Town. They train five components of skills, Blacksmithing, Tailoring, Electronics and Shoe Mending and all the disabled inmates survive from the skills learnt at the center with their respective families.
One disabled who fathers three children and live with his family is Amidu Gillen, Gillen called on other disable colleagues to come to the center to learn a technical or otherwise profession that will enhance a self reliance future for them and restore their dignity in society once more. He said they manufacture wonder stoves, hoes, cutlass and other tools which are frequently in use by the community.
Among the problems he highlighted is insufficient medical attention and the possibility of securing aid from philanthropists, governments and NGOs to change their zinc house structures. Mr. Gillen lamented the fact that they were given ten plots of land but are only allow to use six and of more recent, a man purported to be representing the Lands Ministry is reported to have given instructions to the disabled not to continue any future construction in the area. Gillen is finally appealing to the government to help them to expand their training center so that more disable people will come from the streets and joined them to develop Sierra Leone.Â
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