COVID-19 LEAVES PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED HOMELESS

 COVID-19 LEAVES PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED HOMELESS

 By Alex Michael Koroma

 Mohamed Kanu, a 40-year-old man who has lived as a crippled almost all his life said that he lost his mother whom he was living with and who was taking care of him during the pandemic and since then he has remained homeless.

“My mother died of Corona Virus early this year and I was also tested positive of the virus. After her death the owner of the house that we were living in told me that he was going to rent the house to somebody else and that I should find somewhere else to stay. Since then, I have been living in the streets of Freetown, with my nephew carrying me around on a wheelchair striving for survival,” Mohamed explained.

According to Mohamed, he was not born with Polio. “I was not born with Polio; it was when I was about three years old that my parents realised I could no longer walk. Since then I have been carried around on a wheelchair every day.” He said.

Speaking to local media the Vice President of the Sierra Leone Union on Disability Issues (SLUDI) Honourable Kofie said that as an organisation that looks at disability issues they are constantly in touch with government and other non governmental organisations to help support persons living with disability in order to find a safe home for them to live and to also help them maximize their fullest potential.

He said even though they are considered disabled they can still engage themselves in something beneficial to them and to the country as a whole. Noting that disability is not inability.

Mawusle Dumbuya is the information communication and outreach manager for the National Commission for Persons with Disability (NCPD) she said that not too long from now the commission is planning to have rehabilitation centers in the east, west, north and southern parts of the country to help address the problem of accommodation for disabled persons in the country.

She stressed that the commission has the legal mandate to address the plights of persons living with disability in the country which they are committed to. All attempts to speak to the Ministry of Social Welfare on their own support to persons living with disability prove futile.

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).