Challenges of post-conflict Sierra Leone
Aiah Teddy M'bayo, Training and Development Officer for Leonard Cheshire International's West Africa Region, describes what the aftermath of 10 years of civil war means to the disabled people of Sierra Leone
According to the World Health Organisation under normal circumstances about 10 per cent of every population is made up of disabled people. For us in Sierra Leone the percentage is much,much higher, as a result of a decade of brutal civil war and carnage that has left behind thousands of maimed children, women and men. If disability had been a distant notion before the war, it has become a household reality for nearly everybody in Sierra Leone today.
Many people from the provinces had to flee their homes to the capital Freetown. As the population increased because of this influx, several government buildings and institutions became established 'camps' or shelters for displaced people. One such institution was the National Workshop, which housed over 5,000 displaced persons, including disabled children.
Like in many parts of the world, parents, because of what they see as stigma, conceal their disabled children in the National Workshop. Earlier this year, Melrose Kamara and Agness Kamara, ex-pupils of the Freetown Cheshire Home, felt they had to intervene. They visited several families in the camp and discovered 12 disabled children between the ages of seven and 12 years old. With the help of 'Mummy' Ingrid, a dedicated volunteer at the home, they constructed a makeshift workshop, where they could feed the children and teach them crafts, maths and English. The current roll is 27, and nine are now attending school, including the Freetown Cheshire Home primary school.
Handicap International, in partnership with the local management committee of the Sir Milton Margai Cheshire Home, has also set up a workshop on the home's compound to provide orthopaedic services, such as physiotherapy and mobility aids, for the camp community. But inadequate power supply is hampering the progress of staff and volunteers, and at the moment, the workshop is limited to the repairing of wheelchairs and appliances for disabled children in the camps.
This work only scratches the surface. The difficulties faced by disabled people in Freetown, and the rest of the country, are numerous. In Sierra Leone, 68 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line and only 65,000 out of 5. 5 million people are wage earners. Sierra Leone is now one of the poorest nations in the world. Ten years of civil war has completely devastated the country, its infrastructure, its economy and its people.
There were disabled people before the war and several thousand were also disabled during the war. Those injured during the war have received much attention from government ministries and international aid agencies, for which we are grateful. But it is a pity to see that the issue of those who were disabled before the war is receiving little attention from these quarters. As a result of this, many disabled people are seen on the streets of Freetown in wheelchairs and on crutches begging for their daily survival. These people need to be supported in ways that will enable them to support themselves.
The government has now embarked on a massive repatriation exercise. Most of the displaced people in the National Workshop will be repatriated back to their towns and villages in November and December this year. It will take quite some time for people to settle down after their repatriation; schools, hospitals and community facilities have to be rebuilt, but at least parents will be resettled with their disabled children.
The lack of government policy supporting the rights and development of disabled people doesn't help the plight of disabled people in post-conflict Sierra Leone. Vocational and skills training would be a start; helping them set up a small business enterprise could serve as a breaking point.
Today, though, I know of several disabled young women and men who, under very difficult circumstances, have been able to acquire useful employment skills. Disabled people's training centres in tailoring, hairdressing, shoe repairs, electronics and computing have started up. There are also disabled people's organisation's being formed such as the Handicap Action Movement.
Think of how it would be if disabled people were offered more governmental support - more would be trained for gainful employment and would be able to lead their own independent lives.
For more information about the rights of disabled people in Sierra Leone, contact the umbrella group of disabled peoples' organisations: Sierra Leone Union on Disability Issues, 11 Waterloo Street, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
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