Save the Children Sierra Leone, has last Friday disclosed its partnership with the Sierra Leone Premier League Board (PLB) with support in logistics for the finalists and participants in the league games.
According to the Save the Children representative for the ‘EVERY ONE Campaign’, Juana Kargbo, her organization is not giving cash money to the PLB, but will provide the giant trophy for the champion, 40 gold, 40 silver and 40 Bronze medals, 15 other trophies and 40 t-shirts each for 1`4 fourteen participating teams for the awards night marking the conclusion of the 2011/2012 Premier League season.
“The partnership is an initiative of save the Children’s EVERY ONE CAMPAIGN, which aims to support Sierra Leone to significantly reduce the deaths of pregnant women and children under five”.
She noted that the Save the Children campaign programme is lending support to the PLB by training team captains and coaches and relaying vital information on the free health care initiative with the hope reaching out to the rest of their players.
She disclosed that the EVERY ONE CAMPAIGN intends to bring musicians and footballers in the country together to galvanize popular support of government initiatives targeted at achieving the Millennium Development Goals. She noted that the campaign programme will bring together music celebrities such as Cee-Jay Mackie, Wahid, Buberry, and Com4ta and a number of high-profiled footballers in the Millennium Development Goals support campaign.
She said Save the Children and the Premier League Board believe that the public must be provided with appropriate and adequate information on the issues like the free health care, noting that the partnership between the NGO ands the football league board will “further increase the responsible utilization of the free health care services by pregnant women, under five children and lactating mothers across Sierra Leone.”
Last Thursday, February 16th 2012, staff of Save the Children and their partner, Health Alert, held a training session for coaches and captains of a number of football clubs based on the free healthcare. The training will be replicated next week in Makeni and Kenema respectively.
Some of the participants of the Thursday training told Awoko of how they have been inspired by the training and how promised to share the information imparted to them at the start of each Premier League game from now on till the end of the season.
PLB Chairman, Victor Lewis thanked and expressed appreciation to Save the Children for choosing football as one of their instruments to sensitize the public on the free healthcare services and he promised that his organization will ensure that the messages are spread throughout the country.
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