Residents of Mamba Ridge, a community in mountain in the east of Freetown, on Sunday September 6, 2020, asked the Government of Sierra Leone to build schools, health centre and provide electricity which the community had lacked for decades.
According to Yeanoh Kamara, an elder in the community, only one primary school operates in the community. She said it could no longer accommodate efficiently all the children of school-going age. She said many of them in the community are of limited means and they could not afford transport fare every day for their kids who attend schools in the low-lying areas of Freetown.
“Transportation fare from Mamba Ridge to down town is Le5,000. Since the community is mountainous, bike riders are increasing the prices which they ask for as transportation fare every day,” she said. She added that the community had designated site for the building of a school, but they are yet to receive any government or humanitarian help in their quest for a school.
She also said that community lacks a health centre making access to medical care difficult for residents especially pregnant women.
She said that when residents of the community fall ill at night with ailments which could not be treated at home, the distance which they have to cover to seek medical attention at health centres in Freetown, results in death at times. She said that that had been happening regularly in the community.
Kamara informed this medium that robbers usually attack people in their houses within the community.
She spoke of increasing incidences of crime, as another ugly trend in the community, and attributed it partly to the community’s lack of electricity supply.
She explained, “We usually go to bed by 7am because of the robbers. The personnel attached to the PWD police post are not regular in the community, they only come to our aid when we call them. If there were security personnel in this community, crime rate would not have been rate. Maybe when the community is mountainous that is why they don’t easily come.”
According to the personnel attached to PWD Police post, they are always patrolling the community to see that the lives and property of its residents are safe.
By Ibrahim S. Bangura
08/09/2020. ISSUE NO: 7804