The Plight Of Disabled In The Face Of Covid-19
By Diana Coker
The Corona Virus Pandemic has negatively impacted the lives of people living with disabilities in Sierra Leone, as their situation continues to go from bad to worse.
Aminata Fornah is a petty trader who's two legs are paralyzed, but has refused to allow her current state and condition to stop her from being productive.
Through the support her family member, she has ventured into into business by trading in assorted goods which she buys from neighboring from Guinea for sale in Sierra Leone to other market women until the closure of the Sierra Leone Guinea boarder due to Covid-19.
"I have lost the capital for my business due to the closure of the boarder, and I have a large family to take care of.
Added to that, my husband who was working as a security lost his job, so all the responsibilities in the house are on me" she says.
She indicated that even though she invested some of the capital into other trading activities, she still have not yielded dividend.
"Unlike before, now I struggle to take care of my family and our living condition is getting deplorable.
My children have to walk to school everyday and sometimes go without lunch. It is not really easy for us." she lamented, adding that they would have dropped out of school had it not been for the introduction of the free quality by the current government.
Meanwhile, Aminata is calling on the government, humanitarian organizations and well wishers to help savage the plight of persons with disability.
Aminata is not the only physically challenged person that is going through hell Mohamed is one hundreds of physically challenged persons on the streets of Freetown begging to survive.
“I have depended on begging for the past years, because my parents could not afford to educate me, as I come from a very poor background. In the street, as beggars we go through a lot of challenges Because of our disabilities, people and even family members tend to shy away from us," he also lamented.
Mohamed rides his wheel chair by himself, mostly in areas where traffic is tense, to beg for money to take care of himself and family.
"Before Covid-19 I use to get close to eighty thousand Leones per day, but now most of the people who use to give us money have stopped, because according to them- tin tranga,"
Most of the people living with disabilities have largely felt left behind, despite efforts by government and other organization to better their condition.
With government still grappling with the current battered economy it is but an uphill task for the persons living with disabilities to adequately budgeted for living with the huge challenges they currently face.
Currently records show that there are over an estimated PLWs in the country and for most of them their main source of livelihood is begging.
This story was put together with support from journalists for human rights (JHR) and the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) human rights fellowship.
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