Orange Sierra Leone (SL), one of Sierra Leone’s leading mobile telecoms company, is boosting government effort in sharing information about the Corona Virus epidemic.
The mobile network operator helps designing and introducing zero rated URL links with a view to help Sierra Leoneans access free messages on the raging Corona Virus.
Orange SL, made the disclosure over the weekend, while donating assorted personal protective equipment to Hon Haja Miata Amara of Constituency 112, Western Area Rural district.
The Constituency hosts Orange SL headquarters at Hill Station in Freetown.
Apart from the donation of PPE’s, Orange SL is working hard to ensure an uninterrupted network to ensure effective communication.
The GSM operator also ensures that its products and services including Sim cards, scratch cards, orange money services, voice and SMS among others are always available.
Plans are also underway to provide hand washing facilities and digital temperature readers in public places as effective preventive measures against the virus. Office surfaces are also sanitised considering the contagious mode of transmission of the virus.
Queues at Orange SL facilities are being reduced to their barest minimum and that customers can access services in hygienic condition.
Desmond Spaine is the corporate social responsibility manager at Orange SL. While delivering a speech at the ceremony, he said although Sierra Leone was yet to record a case of corona virus, Orange SL had embarked on pro-active measures of sensitization and awareness-raising sessions with a view to educate the public on the dangers of the virus.
Orange SL, he continued, was working with the World Health Organization (WHO) in disseminating accurate and purposeful messages on the global epidemic.
Spaine further noted that, as a CSR driven entity that cares for their subscribers, they donated the PPE’s to keep Sierra Leoneans safe from the Corona Virus.
The CSR Manager considers the dissemination of the right messages key to the Ebola Virus fight.
It therefore explains why Orange Sierra Leone has supported the zero-rated URL link that allows Sierra Leoneans to have free access to Corona Virus messages from health from government and international health institutions including Ministry of Health and Sanitation, World Health Organisation and Centre for Disease Control.
The CSR Manager concluded that it was almost impossible before now for their clientele to access the communication links. “But, with Orange SL’s intervention, Sierra Leoneans will now be opportune to visit these sites and access useful information that will guide them with their families against the epidemic,” he said.
Customers, he went on, could access information regarding the coronavirus through the following website pages of MOHS: https://health.gov.sl/,CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/& WHO: https://www.who.int/ with free of charge.
Hon Haja Miata Amara, of Constituency 112, Western Area Rural, expressed her deep appreciation to Orange Sierra Leone for the donation of the assorted Personal PPE materials and described the donation as timely.
“We, as lawmakers, are concerned over the raging Corona Virus across Europe and also in the sub region. It was the reason we summoned key government institutions, such as the Ministries of Health, Finance, Local Government and the Central Bank, to gauge their level of preparedness especially so when the virus is now in the Mano River Union,” she said.
She applauded Orange Sierra Leone for supporting the creation of the zero rated URL links, which will enable Sierra Leoneans access tips and information regarding coronavirus.
Orange Sierra Leone is on record for always moving towards the aspirations of the people and government of Sierra Leone, and for many of their interventions in supporting the dissemination of professional information on the corona virus to Sierra Leoneans.
“At this critical time it is timely,” she concluded.