The geographical location of Kroo Bay exposes that slum to flooding during the rains, which also causes widespread water borne diseases.
Against this backdrop, Save the Children (STC)-Sierra Leone, has embanked on an emergency response programme.
Giving a background of the project the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Kroo Bay Area Development Committee (KBADC) and the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Saidu Alieu Turay explained that the CWC was established when STC intervened to address the numerous problems in the slum, with key interests in the protection and promotion of children’s right in the slum.
The KBADC PRO averred that, “STC discovered that the community is faced with array of problems ranges from child abuse to flooding, poor sanitation and unemployment”.
“The emergency response programme was born after a meeting we had with Save the Children,” he said.
Mr Turay explained that, “the emergency response programme involves embankment, cleaning and clearing of clogged drainages”.
To kick start the emergency response programme, Mr Turay explained that “STC provided us with 150 pairs of working boots and gloves; 60 shovels, headpans, 20 wheelbarrows, pickaxes, rakes and 6000 rice sacks”.
STC, Mr Turay further disclosed, “provided us with a bag of rice for us to cook for the workers,” noting that the programme was food for work.
The emergency response programme, he heightened, “…is targeting 150 youth and able-bodied men and women”.
“We regretted”, Mr Turay said, “that the lifespan project which stated on Tuesday is a 20-day project…”
Mr Turay stated that, “initially the project targeted 100 workers in the slum, but the mammoth turnout forces us to round it up to 150 workers”, adding that even when they had rounded up to 150 there were many unemployed youth in the slum who were willing to work.
“We are appealing to government, local and international non governmental organizations (NGOs) to support us either in cash or kind, when the response programme would have ended,” Mr Turay appealed.
He explained that with the intervention of other organizations in the slum, the work would continue, adding that “this would help us address the several problems faced in the slum.”