Commemorating World Food Day, an international day celebrated every year around the world on 16 October in honour of the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations in 1945, Social Workers Sierra Leone (SWSL), a non-governmental organisation dedicated to the plight of mentally ill homeless people, announced they are celebrating two years of their Sunday Feeding Program with a fundraising dinner slated for 30th October 2020 at Sierra Palms Resort.
According to SWSL National Coordinator Hassan Koroma, the Feeding Program started on 9th September 2018 with food prepared and delivered to 25 mentally ill homeless people starting from their office at Sanders Street and Kroo Town Road junction (opposite Choithrams Supermarket) to ECOWAS Street including streets that feed into and run off Siaka Stevens Street.
Meanwhile, from the initial donation to feed the above mentioned 25 people – for which the donor prefers to remain anonymous – two years down the line SWSL has been blessed with other individuals, public and private businesses, and sponsors that have helped them deliver over 15,000 lovingly prepared and packaged meals to their mentally ill and homeless service users.
Koroma said: “It was by providence that the Sunday feeding of mentally ill homeless people started two years ago. On Friday 7th September 2018 while coming from Friday prayers, I saw a food vendor refusing service to a mentally ill homeless woman. That experience so touched me that I decided as a Social Worker, to do something to address not only the food needs of homeless people but also to raise awareness of their plight, including access to healthcare, shelter, justice and the like.”
Koroma furthered, “As fate would have it, that very day, a fellow Sierra Leonean Muslim residing in the US called me intimating that he wanted to send some money to prepare and distribute food to 25 poor fellow Muslims every Friday. I immediately told him about my earlier experience and I was able to convince him to change his plan to include mentally ill homeless people.”
He said the Ebola preventive restriction on businesses operating in the city on Sunday was still in effect from 12am to 12 pm, and because homeless people get their food from trash bins, he realised that Sunday would be a better day to start the feeding program.
Meanwhile, he said two years down the line “the Sunday Feeding Program keeps growing from strength to strength as we cater to more people, including all homeless and poor along our Siaka Stevens Street and feeder roads and general distribution route”.
On the growth of the program Koroma revealed, “We have gone from distributing just a meal at lunchtime on Sunday to including breakfast, making two rounds a day at 8 AM and 12 noon. Despite our successes, our long term goals include extending the Sunday Feeding Program to a daily operation including a fully equipped mobile clinic (ambulance) to cater for the health needs of our mentally ill brothers and sisters.”
To continue with the feeding program, Koroma said SWSL is having a fundraising dinner at Sierra Palms Resort on 30th October.
“This event is aimed at furthering the Sunday Feeding Program. We have sent out invites to government MDAs, diplomatic corps, businesses, individuals and organisations. The cost is Le300,000 per plate with maximum of five plates per table. If people can’t make it, they can still donate to the program by buying plates,” he informed.
The National Coordinator, SWSL thanked partners, volunteers, the media and appealed to all and sundry to come onboard and donate to this worthy cause. “We are dedicated to the health and human dignity including social inclusion of our mentally ill and homeless brothers and sisters,” he averred.
By David Thoronka