Save the Children Meets President Koroma

By State House Communications Unit

As government continues to address the current epidemic in all facets, President Ernest Bai Koroma on Friday 31st October received the Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children Justin Forsyth at his State Lodge, Hill Station.

President Koroma expressed delight for earlier efforts and support made by Save the Children particularly in the involvement of manning the Kerry Town Ebola Treatment Centre, and added the that treatment centre will increase the bed capacity and also laboratory capacity that will cut down on waiting time of people in holding centres. 

He underscored the need for psychosocial support to Ebola victims and furthered that counseling officers and social workers who would be assigned to address the social issues in the various communities be well trained. “In this you need a specialized social officer because of the peculiarity of an issue within the chiefdoms, but generally we need to have social officers all around the place who will be addressing these issues that would form a base of the social networking in the country,” he stated.

The president emphasized the need to addressing the mindset of people especially on the post Ebola economic and social effects and issues within the communities that will require quick attention. He suggested that Save the Children should work together with the social welfare ministry to ensure that the service is provided.

The Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children Justin Forsyth in his opening remarks stated that they have been committed to working in Sierra Leone even prior to the Ebola outbreak in the country and hope to continue afterwards. He said that with the outbreak, they have doubled their efforts on child protection issues and working on addressing the consequences of the outbreak. 

Mr. Forsyth also stated that they had been working with government and informed the president that would be managing the Kerry Town treatment centre. He went on to state that they had been working closely with the Ministry of Social Welfare on child protection, community health workers in terms of work that will have to do with prevention.

The Minister of Social Welfare Gender and Children’s Affairs Alhaji Moijueh Kai-Kai said that Save the Children has been very instrumental in the training of trainers on psychosocial issues and furthered that the effort has been cascaded to the provinces.