By Foday Moriba Conteh
In a bid to accessing the deliverables of its five (5) partner organizations in the country, the One Family People (OFP) organization has on Friday 6th August 2021 concluded a three day consultative meeting with OFP’s Board, Staff, partner organizations, stakeholders & beneficiaries. The event took place at the Peace Museum Hall of the former Special Court for Sierra Leone at New England Ville in Freetown.
The five partner organizations are: Dorothy Springer Trust, Kono Cheshire Services, Disability Awareness Action Group, Welfare Society for the Disabled and Polio Person’s Development Association.
Addressing the gathering, the Programme Manager of One Family People, Samuel P.O.V Macaulay, said the organization has five strategic partner organizations within the country that implement their child empowerment programs.
He added that these organizations at the start of every year present and review their annual plans and before implementation they convene in order to improve on the areas of transparency and accountability.
The Programme Manager continued that as part of their efforts to access the deliverables of these organizations they thought it fit to hold the three day consultative meeting with OFP’s Board, Staff, partner organizations, stakeholders & beneficiaries, 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.
Delivering a statement, the Director of One Family People, Edward Emmanuel said that the COVID-19 pandemic has been described as “the war of our generation” and millions of families are bravely waging war on COVID-19 by rising to the many challenges of social distancing, including upended school and work routines, financial insecurity, and inability to see loved ones, all compounded by the uncertainty of how long this will last.
He added that they acknowledge the efforts made by all levels of Government and stakeholders especially the Ministry of Social Welfare so far in working for a Society that is Fit 4 All.
Edward Emmanuel pointed out that as One Family People, they are appealing to all to have the spirit of acceptance in every step they take , build a house full of love and a community filled with Super Heroes to save “Humanity” from discrimination and hate of which he begged all partner organizations to do what they are supposed to do for the children, follow up always with them to make the world around them continue to contribute to their development.
The Director stated that as part of their contribution to making sure the global goals are met the “Leave No One Behind Campaign” was born in order to not only look at the unwavering love for equality and unity but also inspiring youths to be productive citizens for Africa through music, drama and the creative arts.
“OFP understands that inequality and exclusion violate PWDs’ rights, constrain their choices and voices, and impact negatively on their ability to fully participate in and benefit from development processes. The key systemic barriers to empowerment of PWDs are commonly in the areas of formal laws, policies and institutions, social norms and individual capacity constraints,” he revealed.
In his presentation, the Chief Executive Officer of Dorothy Springer Trust, Dr. Abdulai Dumbuya, one of the partner organizations commended One Family People 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.
Underscoring their successes as an organization he said they were able to provide Anti-epileptic drugs for 53 CYwDs and the rate of seizures reduced in some children adding that they also provided crutches for 2 CYwDs which enabled the users to become mobile, adding that they also provided funds for nutritious provision to 40 children at the Mahanaim Home Grafton on a monthly basis and that through this support to the home the health of the children improved greatly.
Dilating on the challenges, he said, the new ones include the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, however, noting that all health emergency protocols were taken into consideration, furthering that self-relocation of beneficiaries without contacting the office or having knowledge of their whereabouts that led to replacements through needs assessment was also a challenge.
The Program Manager of Disability Awareness Action Group, Bayah Sesay, also commended the One Family People organization for their support, adding that DAAG works directly with the One Family People for the implementation of the Liliane Foundation Funded programme on Child Empowerment Programme that has various components.
Bayah Sesay disclosed that the One Family People needs assessment activity is conducted by a DAAG CBR facilitator for 183 children with disability capturing all categories of disabilities to give them school support provided by the Lillian Foundation organization. He also stated that every year a needs assessment is conducted for the beneficiaries and that the program is geared towards giving chance to children with disabilities to be engaged in secular education and become useful in society.
A representative from the Kono Cheshire Services also talked about their successes and challenges for their annual plan 2021 of which it was disclosed that they have provided bursary support to 102 children with disabilities which includes exercise books, ledgers, bags, uniforms, shoes etc.
She added that 17 children with disabilities were treated for epilepsy and such has increasingly reduced seizures (the six new recruited children with disabilities were all diagnosed and given medical certificates as epilepsy patients).
She maintained that they also facilitated trainings for CHW, traditional healers and TBA’s in CBR principles, early identification, community treatment and referrals of children with disabilities in the newly identified chiefdom.
The two other partner organizations Welfare Society for the Disabled and Polio Person’s Development Association also did presentations on their activities which include their successes and challenges so far. The presentations were followed by preliminary feedbacks to partner organizations which was facilitated by the Programme Manager of One Family People, Samuel P.O.V Macaulay and Lionel Lebbie.
