(ANS – Freetown) – Don Bosco Fambul, one of Sierra Leone’s leading child-welfare organisations, has not only expanded its support to vulnerable children in the country following the Ebola outbreak, but has provided twenty mobile hand-wash basins to the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs for use in Freetown. The news was reported in the “Awoko” newspaper.

The mobile hand-wash basins, fitted with taps and hygiene-related substances, were handed over to the Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs, Moijueh Kaikai during a brief ceremony at Don Bosco’s headquarters on Fort Street during October.

The Director of Don Bosco, Brother Lothar Wagner, said prior to the donation that the organisation’s interest in promoting the welfare of children remains a top priority on their agenda, especially in the wake of the Ebola outbreak.

He added that as part of their organisation’s efforts in tackling issues affecting street children, social workers are going out at night to meet homeless children who are living day and night on the streets of Freetown. Following that, he said, qualified staff were doing individual and group counselling, mediation and family tracing in a bid to return those children to their relatives.

Following the outbreak of the disease, he said, the Minister approached the Don Bosco management for their help in providing much-needed items for children in quarantined homes, and for those affected by the Ebola disease.

He said, the hand-wash basins donated to the Ministry were to be placed in strategic locations around Freetown, to act as a reminder that good hygiene practices were possibly the best way to prevent contracting the Ebola virus.

The Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs, Moijueh Kaikai, noted that the support provided by Don Bosco to the Ministry was not only a re-affirmation of its commitment to the challenging issues affecting children, but a demonstration of care for the lives of every citizen of this country, especially in the wake of the Ebola scourge.

He pledged that the mobile hand-wash basins provided by the organisation would be placed in strategic locations around the city as part of the government’s continuous effort to emphasise that people should accept the existence of the disease and take precautionary measures to prevent it.

Published 11/11/2014