September 25, 2017 By Memunatu Bangura
Edward Wrobed and Josephine presenting the items to victims at Juba camp
A cross section of Sierra Leoneans working for the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, has on Friday 22nd September, 2017, donated food and non-food items to the August 14 flooding and mudslides victims at Juba camp.
Speaking on behalf of the team, Edward Wrobeh said when the flooding and landslide occurred in the country, they were concerned as Sierra Leoneans and decided to put funds together in order to help people that were affected.
“We were deeply touched by the tragic event that occurred on August 14 and as Sierra Leoneans working for the UN, we decided to come together to support our brothers and sisters that were affected by the flooding and mudslide,” he said.
According to him, the items included ten bundles of used clothing, two hundred bags of rice, thirty gallons of cooking oil, toiletries, bags of cooking salt and sugar, one hundred school bags and other learning materials that worth ten thousand United States Dollars ($10, 000).
“It was a natural disaster and we were not expecting such occurrence. This donation came with a very short notice but we tried to raise such amount out of our little earnings,” he said.
Wrobeh said that was not the first donation UN staff in the diaspora have done, stating that they also donated the sum of forty -seven thousand, five hundred United States Dollars ($ 47, 500,000) as their support to Sierra Leoneans during the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone.
Speaking on behalf of the victims, the chairlady at Juba camp, Aminata Rogers, appreciated the items and thanked the team for their support, stating that the donation came at the right time.
She prayed for God to touch other kind-hearted Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora to follow the action of those at the UN mission in South Sudan.
Also, the team donated provision, toiletries, and other items plus the sum of five hundred thousand Leones each to three flooding and mudslide victims that are admitted the Connaught hospital in Freetown.
Janet Mohamed, Hawa Vandi and Hawa Sillah were residents at Mortomeh, Regent, where the August 14 flooding and mudslide killed over three hundred people with over hundred left buried under mud.
Matron at Connaught hospital, Isatu Kamara said the donation was a step in the right direction, adding that the objective of the Sierra Leoneans working in the UN was one that was worth emulating.
She thanked the team for the gesture and assured them that the patients would be well taken care of and would soon join their families.
Hawa Vandi, who sustained pelvic fracture, said she was happy for the items and thanked the team for considering them in their time of distress.
According to her, there was great improvement with her health, thanking the Almighty God for spearing her life, adding that she was not better than those who lost their lives in the disaster.