By Ibrahim S. Bangura
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday, March 22, 2023 donated 84 TVS motorbikes and 64 Samsung Computer Tablets to the Ministry of Social Welfare to improve the capacity of social workers in carrying out their duties in different communities.
This donation was made during the commemoration of the World Social Worker Day which was supported by UNICEF.
According to Wilberforce Tengey, UNICEF representative, the items were also donated to the Ministry in recognition of their efforts in the daily lives of children, families and communities, and to support them effectively to carry out their work in the different communities in Sierra Leone. “This consignment of motorbikes will be distributed to the 16 districts of Sierra Leone for use by Social Workers who are on the ground, providing psychosocial support to families and to people who are in quarantine homes. Our social workers have been present during times when our communities are affected by fire or flooding disaster. We thank you all the Social Workers for this remarkable work. Without your hard work, commitment and dedication, our efforts towards attaining the Sustainable Development Goals would be in vain,” he said.
According to him, the active work of Social Workers helped in the effective response to the secondary effect of COVID-19, such as increased gender-based violence cases, increased household poverty and also effects on mental health.
Tengey said UNICEF would continue to collaborate with and support the Ministry of Social Welfare and other line ministries such as Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs, to develop and roll out case management systems and information management systems and guidelines that would improve the efficacy and practice of social work.
He said, “As UNICEF, we also wish to recommit to working closely with the Ministry of Social Welfare through dimensions, in improving social work education, regulating the improvement of social work and developing operating procedures and systems to help frontline staff to better serve children, women and other vulnerable population.”
Tengey thanked the Peace Building Fund for providing the funding to purchase the motorbikes.
Baindu Dassama Kamara, Minister of Social Welfare, thanked UNICEF for their kind support towards social workers in Sierra Leone. She said that the items would definitely enable social workers do what they supposed to do. She said, “These motorbikes and computers from UNICEF are going to enable our social workers carry out their work effectively. As you are always helping us through our capacities, UNICEF we thank you. Ministry of Social Welfare and myself want to assure that these items are going to be used for their intended purposes,” she concluded.
Qasim Kamara, one of the social workers who attended the event, said that they were very excited to get a support from UNICEF towards their work. He said that with such items, some of their constraints in carrying out their duties in the provinces are solved. “We appreciate and thank UNICEF for these wonderful donations,” he concluded.