36-YEAR-OLD PHYSICALLY CHALLANGED WOMAN CRIES OUT FOR HELP

 

36-Year-Old Physically Challenged Woman Cries Out For Help

 By Alex Michael Koroma

Persons living with disability are no doubt among the set of people that are badly hit by the dreadful Corona virus. As 36-year-old Mabinty Kamara a physically challenged, single mother, living at Fourah Bay in the eastern part of Freetown explains that she could hardly feed herself and her children not to talk of sending them to school after having two of her kids testing positive for the Corona Virus Disease.

“I have four kids with me, and I don't have anyone to help me look after them. Their father abandoned me after realizing that two of the kids had tested positive for COVID-19 last year. Since then he is nowhere to be seen,” she said.

“I could hardly feed not to talk of me sending my kids to school,” she explained. Calling on government and other philanthropists to come to her rescue and to other colleagues that are also physically challenged.

She said that even though there is the Free Quality Education in the country, she could still not afford giving lunch and buying uniforms, shoes, bags and other school gears for her kids as her only means of survival is begging.

Have Sombe, outreach coordinator for an organization called Concern for the development of disabled women and girls, said their organization is working in collaboration with Sierra Leone Union on Disability Issues (SLUDI) which is the umbrella body of all disability groups in the country to ensure that they advocate for the rights and privileges of all persons living with disability in the country. She said that support from government has not been that forthcoming.

“There are hundreds of disabled out there that are left out of government financial support through The National Commission for Social Action (NaSCA) support programs over the years,” She said.

She went further to say that even with the pandemic, there was little or nothing done to cater for the deaf and visually impaired in order to adequately sensitize them of the virus and as a result many of them were infected by the Corona Virus.

In my visit to the National Commission for Persons with Disability (NCPD). Mawusle Dumbuya who is the Outreach and Communication Officer spoke about the commission's commitment to ensuring that they address the growing concerns of disable persons in the country.

This would mean giving them livelihood support in the form of finance and logistics. Answering to the question of whether they have any intension of removing them (Persons with Disability) from the streets, he responded by saying that taking all persons with disability to a particular area is itself is discriminatory. Promising that the commission is looking for a more sustainable way of addressing the plights of disable people in the country.

Like Mabinty there are many other disable women out there who are also single mothers that have been badly affected by COVID-19 and are calling for help.

This story was produced with support from Journalists for Human Rights (JHR), through its Mobilizing Media in the Fight Against COVID-19 in partnership with the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ).