By Sitta Turay
Every time I drive pass two particular locations in Freetown, I really feel sorry for humanity. There is what is effectively a camp for people living with disability and mental health on Pademba road near the burnt out and decrepit facilities of the former Public Works Department. That camp holds more than a hundred people living with disability and their families and dependents.
What actually started out as a transit place has now become a permanent home with severe environmental consequences for the whole area covering up to Dundas Street junction with Pademba road. It is from this camp that the occupants are wheeled into the slow moving rush hour traffic to beg for money from commuters. In some cases children who should be in school taking advantage of the Free Quality Education program, are the ones pushing the wheel chairs in that highly dangerous situation.
The second place is the area between the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) building and the Bank of Sierra Leone. On this short stretch of road, groups of beggars whether in wheel chairs or not, aggressively push their way through the normal small crowd of roadside hawkers to beg from motorists even on a daily basis. This is the part of town where we have some of the most important national administrative structures and commercial houses. Sometimes I wonder whether those who can and should do something about this really care even as they, like me, drive pass every morning and evening to and from work.
We have to be honest with ourselves this culture of begging is beginning to take hold in cities up and down this country. It’s not just people living with disability. It is very common these days to be stopped on the road by a young person who would otherwise be working to earn a living, with or without a job in some government ministry to ask for ridiculous sums of money for transportation or bread. The truth is, even people who earn an income sometimes find themselves in difficult situations requiring such small bailout but the situation in our cities has gone so bad that I believe this country has to start having a conversation on this culture of begging and why it is the best thing for people to depend on themselves, whether they are living with disability of not. What obtains now is not a good sign for any country or government.
Government must know that it is their responsibility to take care of all citizens that may not be able to independently fend for themselves especially people with disability and mental health. I am not sure but I believe this present political government is feeling embarrassed when the president’s convoy breezes pass this column of beggars at Cotton Tree - if not for anything else but for the sake of humanity.
I have heard some people describe what they see on our streets as an “eyesore” but I disagree with such description. They are human beings that have some challenges. Many of us walk along the streets idle and doing the same thing but we are not referred to as an “eyesore” and that makes it very unfair on the people living with disability.
I have recently talked to some people about the welfare of this category of our own people and the information I am getting may not be extremely bad. According to a source at the Freetown City council, some efforts have been made to make these people self-reliant.I was informed that the Freetown City Council rented apartments for some of these street beggars at Jui and Waterloo just outside Freetown. Start-up money was also allocated to families for them to engage in small businesses that they will avoid begging on the streets especially around the Cotton tree area. That was a pilot project aimed at the general population of beggars.
As far I am concerned that is reasonable but insufficient start. At least those that benefitted from the project now have a place to sleep and some money to begin to change their life’s direction. But that will only happen if these former beggars believe in the project and are thus willing to go by the dictates of the system or they are strictly monitored for compliance.
I know it will ignite humanitarians’ attentions when they are asked to respect the agreement that was stricken between them and the authorities to leave the street but a reasonable agreement is very possible. That is because the reason Freetown City Council is making these strides to restore respectability to the beggars.
What is disheartening though is that there is an element of what amounts to a blatant refusal to change the way they earn their living because begging has now become a way of life and self-reliance and a pipe dream.
Even in Sierra Leone, there are people living with disability that are very much involved in trade and other businesses keeping them away from the streets holding cap in hand. They may not be financially independent yet but they are not doing badly at all. I know it can be difficult to make such direct comparisons but in the United States where I am living for more than a decade now, people living with disability are mostly housed in places called “group homes”. In those group homes, the tenants or clients (as they are widely referred to) are generally having a hands-on care but taught how to be self dependent.
The United States is a first world country with adequate resources so it is understandable that these people pay for those services through their social security benefits from the states in which they live. I am only making this unfair comparison to highlight the fact that people living with disability are encouraged to be independent not dumped in overcrowded and decrepit buildings with a non-existent sanitary system. I want to prompt our authorities to start thinking of ways Sierra Leone will tap into funds at the National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) to take care of these people.
Late Doctor Willoughby practiced his medicine in a manner I admired so much. He set up a system in which the rich will pay more, so that he will treat the poor for zero money. That model can be copied to take care of our people with disability, mental health and beggars. NASSIT can create a special budget that will help acquire the local equivalent of group homes for these people.
The Group Home will restrict begging and also open up ways for the inhabitants to redirect their energy towards self-reliance. It will also help educate people with disability and those who depend on them. It will help with daily medication for both people with disability and ones with mental health.
This initial effort by the Freetown City Council is a good one. This is a poor country so the authorities deserve some applause for thinking so positively about our brothers and sisters living with disability that are begging on the streets for food.
I know there are huge challenges trying to set up Group Homes but such homes make a lot of sense. At the moment it does not look pleasant at all when many of our people living with disability are in their wheel chairs dashing out and chasing cars in a traffic jam asking for their living. It is our duty as a country to take care of these people. Now is the time!!!
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