Abdul M. Sesay, the Deputy Secretary General of People with Disabilities in Morabie, a Community in Waterloo, on Thursday called on the Government of Sierra Leone and non-governmental organisation to set up a training centre where they could be given vocational training which will empower them to exchange their lives as beggars with one of self-reliance.
Sesay added that many people with physical disability and well trained in skills live within the community, but since there is no support, they chose to beg on the streets.
He said sometimes they send some of their wives and children to beg in the street so that what they earn could be used to augment the sustenance of their lives, “because staying at home without doing anything even with the skills that you have acquired no one would help you”.
“I am an electronic mechanic; I chose to do this because I don’t want to stay in the street begging, what my wife and children will gather [from street begging] is what I will use to buy the tools for my work. If we have vocational centres here, those with skills will sustain themselves as well as train those that are not with skills.”
He said that some of colleagues are homeless, and they sleep on the street leading to their poor state of health. According to Sesay, with a vocational centre they would be able to manage their lives and their families better.
He said that they live in rooms rented with money they gather from street begging.
By Ibrahim S. Bangura
29/09/2020. ISSUE NO: 7919