All we noticed and benefited from the quarantine was a waste of our precious time, resources and starvation for our family members out there because the packages from Social Welfare ministry did not meet our standard and comfort.”
Two of the released quarantined inmates in Magburaka, Mohamed alias Shakur (the okada rider) and Pa Sheka Kargbo, the herbalist from Magbesseh village, confides in Awoko Newspaper whiles waiting for other family members to be released yesterday in Magburaka town.
Mohamed Shakur, the Okada rider said whiles they were in quarantined government and his health partners merely ‘seized advantage on us by wasting our time with no compensation and support’. He said the most difficult day for them was on the 21st and 22nd of January, the first and second days after they took the Ebola vaccine.
He said it was difficult and hard for them because according to him the drug was very hard for their system for the rest of the second and third days but was normal on the fourth day.
He appreciated the Education Minister and other stakeholders such as the Council Chairman and their Paramount Chief who, according to him, were almost always present to encourage them and give them hope and faith.
Whilst expressing his frustration the commercial bike rider said, “Before now I was a bike rider from where I took care of myself and family but since I was quarantined here my entire family was starving. I was more disappointed when I went to my bike owner after quarantine on Sunday 31st January to start the trade I knew; he told me that he had given the bike to another rider.”
“Presently, after my release from quarantine my life is not complete because I am jobless and the package from the Ministry of Social Welfare after our release was not enough for us: the bag was full with dress for women and children and because I don’t have use for them I gave it back, so I am calling on government to come to our aid or else,” he concluded.
The traditional herbalist, Sheka Kargbo recalled that whiles in quarantine the happiness government took from him was his freedom and absent from his village, stating that the quarantine was frustrating for him because all his relatives are in the village. He said he was constructing his house when news of his quarantine reached their village; he had no option but to stop and respond.
He travelled on that day; “when I returned to my village after the quarantine the bundles zinc I bought for my house were nowhere to be seen and the saddest thing was when my people run away from me because of the Ebola. Presently, I am a tool of laughter in my community, my colleague youths say I am one of those that took the virus to the district. So, I am calling on government to ensure that they look after us and protect us especially me, coming from a remote village,” he pleaded.
By Mohamed Kabba
Thursday February 04, 2016
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