By Millicent Senava Mannah
The St. George Foundation, with the support from TOYBOX UK and other donor partners has on 27th October 2021 launched their ‘’Pul Pikin Na Trit For Lan” Project, which is aimed at rehabilitating and reuniting children living on the streets with their parents or wards and to send them back to school. The launching was held at the Ebenezer Millennium Hall on Regent Road in Freetown.
Giving an overview of the project, the Project Coordinator at the St George Foundation Aruna Mansaray, said that the Foundation is a local NGO which was established in 2004. And that since inception, it has been working earnestly to remove children from the streets after the end of the Civil War in the country by providing shelter, basic needs and sending them back to school and for those that have parents the Foundation has aided them to be reunited with their families.
The St George Foundation Programme Manager, Yayah Kamara, stated that there are many children living on the streets and they are vulnerable to lot of dangers maintaining ho it should be a concern to every citizen in the country and if they are not helped they will end up creating problems in the society.
He said it is in that regard that they have embarked on a 3 year project which started in August 2021 and will end in July 2024. He said the project is targeting the Western Urban area which they consider to be danger zone for children. According to him, the project is not only for children, but to implement skill training in communities geared towards empowering parents for them to be fit to responsible for their children.
The Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs Child Protection Officer, Gassimu Sesay, commended the St George Foundation for their efforts stating the organization is a stepping stone to get children out from the streets.
He stated that parents have a key role to play to get children from the streets by being responsible parents and also monitor their children’s affairs in and out of school. “When they are on the streets they are exposed to a lot of dangers like drug abuse, rape and crime,” he reiterated.
Deputy Director at the Ministry of Social Welfare ,Worokia Conteh said that parents should give their children encouragement, create time for them, and make them have the confidence to speak to them when they face any problem.
“Corporal punishment must be minimized in order for children not to be afraid of you because if they cannot speak to you as their parents, they will speak to the wrong people that will mislead them,” he cautioned.
One of the beneficiaries at the St George Foundation, Thomas A. Gbla, said that he was taken from his the provinces by his aunt with the promise of sending him to school. He expressed his disappointment when his aunt did not keep to the promise and gave him sachets of cold water to sell. The Foundation found him and sent him to school and he can now read, write and made an appeal for the project to be extended so that more children would benefit.
