Christopher A. A. Jones, the Chief Coordinator for the Portee Coronavirus Response Unit (PoCRU), has on Monday June 15, 2020 called on the Government of Sierra Leone to assist their committee with Veronica buckets, face masks, hand sanitizers and cash in order to speed up their public education campaign on the coronavirus.
Jones said that the committee was constituted among residents in the community in response to the outbreak of the Coronavirus to raise awareness on COVID-19.
He added that the large size of the community caused them to divide it into three sections to make their response effective, each having a captain, his deputy and 40 members.
The chief coordinator said that, the committee lacks financial support and materials to help battle the virus, adding that they used to rent a megaphone, batteries and a PA system to do public sensitizations.
He said that since the committee was established it has had no support from the government, saying that they have made so many efforts to be considered for help, adding, “We have met with the Minister of Information, Deputy Minister of Information and the Chairlady from the Women’s wing, but none of them paid attention to us here. We were able to get support from the Coordinator for the District Coronavirus Response Unit from the 3rd to the 5th of May 2020. He gave us 12 men to do door-to-door awareness raising. We are grateful to him for his wonderful support.”
On behalf of Portee Community, Jones called on the Government and the Minister of information to aid Portee Coronavirus Response Unit with more materials that would help to stop the spread of the pandemic. He said, “We will appreciate any support from anybody, like giving face masks, hand washing machines, veronica buckets and any relevant item that could be used to help battle the virus. The support from the government could play a bigger role, gives us big motivation and more zeal to go on with the awareness campaign on Coronavirus so their support is very much important.”
By Ibrahim S. Bangura
18/6/2020. ISSUE NO.: 7848