Local Authorities commend three days exercise as laudable

The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in collaboration with Ministry of Health and Sanitation has conducted a day regional sensitization meeting for paramount chiefs and district administrators on house to house Ebola tok at the district council hall Nyandeyama road.

Many authorities who spoke to this medium lauded the effort of the government as a step in the right direction to stop the chain of transmission.

The chairman man for the meeting who double as the senior district officer Kenema district said the issue of Ebola has become a burden on us in Sierra Leone. Abdulai Mansaray said the paramount chiefs have a big role to play and call on them to make sure the use the bye laws.

Representing the paramount chiefs of Kenema district the paramount chief of Langurama chiefdom disclosed that his chiefdom is free from Ebola because he is always in his community sensitizing his people and the bylaws are been adhered to. PC Prince Mambu Pewa said the reason for the spread of Ebola was as a result of misinformation from nurses and doctors at the initial stage saying that there is no medicine for Ebola and stated that the sick needs encouragement until God helps the person to recover. He said they as paramount chiefs are not happy about the AIG east Alfred Karrow Kamara because his police are harassing the paramount chiefs at the checkpoints and stated that they as paramount chief in the eastern region don’t need the services of AIG in the eastern region, adding that what he is doing is not implemented.

Representing the ministry of local government and rural development the district officer under ministry of local government Sahr Samuel Matthew said the local government ministry was established to work with the traditional leader and to solve their problems. He said they as local government they have taught it fit that it is necessary to educate their chiefs and they will in turn educate their subject about the prevention and the house to house Ebola tok to continue even after the three days adding that the chiefs did not only get the chiefdom at heart but the country as a whole. He said the ministry of local government is ready to give it fullest support to the paramount chiefs.

The program manager health education division in the ministry of health and sanitation said with all what the ministry has done Ebola cases are still coming. Lansana Conteh described the period as a trying times as the country is going through difficult circumstances adding that the purpose of their visit is to follow His Excellency’s mandate to end the Ebola epidemic. He stated that up to now people are hiding sick patients at home and travelling with them from one place to another. He stated Sierra Leone is the only country that has religious tolerance. He revealed that traditional practices is one of the ways of spreading Ebola in Sierra Leone noting that Ebola is not spread by vaccination, air, witchcraft, mosquitoes and it is not a divine punishment. He ended.

Thr paramount chief of Mandu chiefdom PC David Mandu Farley Kelei-coomber said no matter how it is characterized the practical effect of the three days campaign was to shot down our people in their homes saying that the benefit must be weighed against those who need to fend for themselves on daily bases if the government did not provide for the urgently.

By Paul Lamin in Kenema

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