By Foday Moriba Conteh
In a bid to support children living with disabilities in the areas of health, education, livelihood and social inclusion using the inclusive development strategy in the country, the One Family People organization with support from Liliane Funds has on Thursday 18th March, 2021 allocated the sum of One Billion, Four hundred and Seventy-Five Million Leones (Le1, 475, 000,000) to its five (5) partner organizations.
The event took place at the Peace Museum Hall of the former Special Court for Sierra Leone in Freetown climaxing a three days inception workshop for the partner organizations.
The five partner organizations include: Dorothy Springer Trust, Kono Cheshire Services, Disability Awareness Action Group, Welfare Society for the Disabled and Polio Person’s Development Association.
Stating the nature of the partnership , the Programme Manager of One Family People, Samuel P.O.V Macaulay, said the organization has five strategic partner organizations across the country that implement their child empowerment program, adding that the aforementioned child empowerment program is an ongoing program that has been in operation for years of which he said at the start of every year they present and review annual plans and before implementation they convene such an event to improve on the areas of transparency and accountability.
The Programme Manager continued that they thought it fit to invite key stakeholders for them to see what they are doing and how they are doing it in order for the former to perform a monitoring role by looking into and assessing what they are doing as an organization.
He said they declared 2021 as a year of accelerated delivery.
In his address, the Chief Technical and Higher Education Officer at the Ministry of Higher Education, Dr. Josephus J. Brima expressed appreciation to the One Family People for the support they have been giving to people living with disability across the country.
He noted that breaking barriers for persons living with disability is very challenging adding how it portrays a universal narrative of the struggles persons with disability go through in order to be fairly treated in every sphere of human endeavor.
Dr. Josephus J. Brima maintained that persons with disability are not less human than any of us as one’s disability does not rob him/her of sterling abilities pointing out that there are successful persons with disability in every sphere of life.
Director of One Family People, Edward Emmanuel, said that theirs is a human rights organization working to build resilience and break barriers for persons with disability through capacity building, advocacy, partnership, development and leveraging resources, adding that the organization is also a strategic partner organization with the Dutch Liliane Foundation in Sierra Leone that is working with five partner organizations in Kono, Bombali, Western Area Urban, and Western Area Rural to implement the Child Empowerment Programme that complements the Government’s agenda on human capital development.
He said that every year One Family People disburses funds to its partner organizations to support children with disability.
Making his statement, President of the Sierra Leone Union on Disability Issues (SLUDI), Santigie Kargbo, applauded the One Family People and its partners for what he described as their instrumental roles in raising awareness on issues affecting people living with disability across the country.
He disclosed that the Sierra Leone Union on Disability Issues (SLUDI) is a membership-based organization whose members consist of national Civil Society Organizations working on disability issues, including DPOs, from all over the country.
Santigie Kargbo said that persons living with disability still face a lot of challenge ranging from discrimination, marginalization etc. further expressing the conviction that through the support of organizations like One Family People those issues will be addressed in the near future.
He revealed that he has so much trust in the partner organizations because the heads of those organizations have been championing issues of disability in the country, adding that he is very much sure that the funds handed over to them will be used judiciously in the interest of children with disability.
Santigie Kargbo pointed out that children with disability are the most vulnerable and that it was only because organizations like SLUDI knocked on the doors of schools most of those children would have been on the streets of which he said he is with the strong belief that children with disability must be capacitated and empowered.
He assured all of SLUDI’s support towards the development of children with disability across the country.
Giving her keynote statement, the Operations Director of One Family People, Hadiatou Diallo, noted that the disbursement is not going to be done equally to the various organizations but rather based on the number of children they are targeting in their programs.
She noted that the disbursement is going to be done on four (4) quarterly basis which is 25% for each quarter but said because they have already gone into the second quarter they will be giving 50 percent of the funds to these organizations and the remaining 50 percent will be disbursed to them after each quarter.
Hadiatou Diallo maintained that as an organization they will ensure that they monitor the entire implementation process to ensure that they funds are used for the intended purpose, adding that as an organization they also provide capacity building for their partners of which she said they have conducted capacity need assessment in order to provide trainings for these organizations.
She revealed these partners over the years are doing tremendous work towards the development of children with disability which she said they are very proud of them. She encourages them not to relent and that they should do more in addressing issues of children with disability in the country.
The Executive Director of one of the implementing entities, Welfare Society for the Disabled, that benefitted, Joseph Alieu Kamara, expressed appreciation to the One Family People and the Liliane Funds for the support they have been giving them over the years to implement programs geared towards the development of people living with disability across the country which he described as very pivotal in addressing issues of disability in the country.
He said that through the support of the organization they are currently supporting children with disability which has open doors for those children, furthering that they support the children to access health and education facilities, improve their livelihoods and enhance social inclusion using the inclusive development strategy formally known as community based rehabilitation in the country.
Joseph assured all that the funds will be used for the intended purposes and will benefit the lives of children living with disability across the country.
The event was climaxed with the official signing of the agreement between the One Family People and the five partner organizations.
