Members of the United Polio Brothers and Sisters Inclusive Training Centre, a group of physically challenged persons working in a skills training centre in the east of Freetown have on Sunday May 1, 2022, appealed to Non-Governmental Organizations, the Government of Sierra Leone and other humanitarians for skills training equipment to aid their work in Gara-tie-dying, Carpentry, Welding etc.
The United Polio Brothers and Sisters Association is a self-help training institution which consists of over 380 people and they all survive from the centre.
It comprises able bodied and persons living with physical challenge.
According to trainees and experts the Centre is in dire need of equipment to improve the quality of their products as a way of expediting production. They added that they would make a decent living as persons with disability if they receive the much needed equipment. “We produce wooden chairs and beds, cooking stoves (coal pots), wooden and metal doors and gates, Gara clothes etc.,” they said.
According to Alim Koroma, the Vice Chairman of the Centre, most times they do not complete production of goods they are contracted for by customers before the final date of delivery, and added that because of this they have lost some of their customers. “We are finding it difficult to develop the vocational centre, and even to make a living. All the tools that we are using here are old and they are not even enough for us,” Koroma lamented.
He said they themselves set up the Centre and had been financing it themselves. He said they recently built a new building and bought some tools. “We are also erecting another structure for which we are seeking funding” he added.
He said that they believed that by establishing the institution they would be able to sustain their families and reduce the number of beggars on the streets, stating that, the institution had grown to include over nine departments, producing items and training persons living with physical challenge in Tailoring, Carpentry, Blacksmithing, Hair-dressing, Welding etc.
He noted that all the departments lack the necessary equipment to maximize the efficiency of their efforts.
“We wanted to bring more youths who are school dropouts and disable people from begging in the streets, but we don’t have enough equipment…We are appealing to the government to come to our aid by completing the building we are erecting and providing us more tools. We want to see the number of beggars on the streets reduced and homeless people provided with shelter,” he concluded.
By Ibrahim S.Bangura