December 20, 2016 By Emmanuel Okyne (Intern)
The pupils made the above plea last Thursday during a donation of food items by the staff Association of UNICEF.
One of the pupils, Samantha Ridge, said she has been in the home since she was three years old and that they were challenged by an acute shortage of water, noting that their disability could not permit them to fetch water.
Ridge said the water pressure was very low to send it to the taps at the home, adding that they were also grappling with erratic power supply.
She said they usually make use of Chinese lights to study at night, stressing that the government subvention was not coming in time to the home and that such was a huge challenge to the successful running the home.
According to her, the home was surviving through well-wishers like churches and non –governmental organisations, noting that years back, the home was only able to afford a single meal per day.
Acting Head Teacher of the Home, Alex George, said the home was established by Leonard Cheshire International and that it was founded by the late Prime Minister, Sir Albert Margai in 1962, adding that the aim of the centre was to get rid of disable children out from the streets.
He said the home was faced with transportation problem and that the only available bus that was taking pupils to the home has been woreout and could not function properly.
George commended the staff Association of UNICF for the donation, adding that the food items were not too small for the inmates, as they could not consume all on a single day.
He appealed to other well-meaning organisations to emulate the work of the UNICEF Staff Association, as their doors were always open.
Treasurer of the Staff Association of UNICEF, Lenora Edwin Jones, said their responsibility was to assist the less privileged and admonished the pupils to accept the food items, which included bags of rice, gallons of oil, bags of onion, Maggi and cartoons of tomato.