By Mohamed T. Massaquoi
With funds from UNICEF, the Rural Agency for Community Action Programme Sierra Leone (RACAP/SL) has donated 40 bicycles to their Natural Leaders, as their community workers are called, in Kpaka chiefdom, Pujehun district.
Handing over the bicycles, the program director of RACAP/SL, Emmanuel Fawundu, told the beneficiaries that their project was geared towards improving on the level of hygiene and sanitation through massive sensitization in the chiefdom.
He encouraged the entire Kpaka community to avoid open defecation as this contributed to the high level of cholera outbreak in the district in 2012 that left many killed especially children.
Fawundu cautioned beneficiaries to use the bicycles for their intended purposes and craved the indulgence of the local authorities to monitor their use.
UNICEF’s community development and sustainable foundation monitoring and evaluation officer, Emmanuel Kamara, commended RACAP/SL on their hygiene programme implementation in the chiefdom and encouraged them to embark on total community led sanitation.
He told Politico that UNICEF was ready to do more for the people of Kpaka chiefdom if they maintained good working relationship with the organisation.
Kamara said that through a monitoring exercise he was able to discover that all the 80 communities in the working areas of RACAP/SL were entitled to locally-made toilets.
He added that they were doing that for the wellbeing of the people living in that part of the district and to complement the effort of government.
Chief Mohamed Kpaka of Njasende Section, expressed thanks and appreciation to the organization and promised them of a good working relationship.
He pleaded with the people to continue to live in a clean environment and as local authorities they would make byelaws to prevent the high level of hygiene and sanitation in the chiefdom.
Meanwhile Pujehun district council is undertaking a massive general cleaning in the township areas of Gobaru, Yonni and Massam Kpakpa with joint supervision by civil society organizations ahead of the Muslim feast of Eid-Ul-Fitr.
© Politico 06/08/13
