UK Aid, SABI Christian Aid and the Sierra Leone Social Aid Volunteers (SLSAV) have concluded a seven days service summit in seven districts across the country. The services started on the 25th November, 2018 in Kabala and ended on the 30th November in Makeni, Falaba and Magburaka. The Service Summit was about Citizens Perception surveys.
Mr. Jakiema, Deputy Chief Administrator, Port Loko District Council, disclosed that SLSAV is the leading NGO so far in the District.
Alfred Jatta Dumbuya, Executive Director of SLSAV, explained that SABI is about accountability with a very strong emphasis on gender equality and social inclusion. It is also about making citizens become very active and informed to be able to speak up, claim their rights and engage constructively with more responsive state service providers.
The SLSAV boss called on participants to speak frankly around the issues, noting that this will help government to be informed around the felt needs of the community people.
Madam Inatoma Kumba, a representative from Christian Aid, highlighted that SABI is a four years DFID funded programme. She disclosed that the organization has operated for two and half years with various partners in the areas of raising government awareness.
She stressed that SABI is not about building water wells, toilets, schools and roads; it is also about creating linkages in order for Government to help their people.
Mr. I.S. Bangura, Chairman of the Programme, commended UK AID, SABI and Christian AID for providing the funds to SLSAV for raising their awareness. He noted that they, at Port Loko, Bombali and Tonkolili districts, are very much proud of the good work SLSAV is doing in their districts, noting that the NGO is very credible. He further noted that it is only the Almighty God that can pay SLSAV.
Mr. Adikali Mohamed Bangura, of Restless Development, gave a brief overview of the survey he conducted, including how he recruited people who can understand the local languages and needs of the people. He noted that they were trained on data collection using smart phones.
Mr. Bangura furthered that pregnant women, head teachers and school management committee members were interviewed. Some of the findings from the interviews, he said, involve inadequacy of drugs in the health centres as well as bad roads to access health centres. 54% of respondents in the survey, according to him, stated that the health facilities are very difficult and hard to reach.
71% of the physically challenged population stated that, the health facility is difficult to reach, while 41%, with no disability, stated the facilities are not difficult to reach but accessibility to transportation is a problem. 59% of the respondents also stated that they don’t visit the health facilities at all for reasons best known to them. 61% stated that they see no need to visit these centers due to the attitude of the staff in those centres.
However there were a lot of recommendations which formed part of the survey’s findings, including increasing the supply of drugs to the different health centres, government to provide funds for PWDs and improvement on roads leading to health centres.
Mr. Fallah Kamanda, a representative from Christian Aid, stated that he is happy with what SABI have started and commended the participants.
33% of those surveyed, by SABI, stated that they had access to good latrines, while 67% stated that they are not. Tonkolili, according to the survey, accounted for the highest number of people who stated that they have access to good latrines, while Bonthe recorded 82% of people who do not have access to latrines.
On household waste, 86% of respondents noted that they are aware of the best ways to deal with household waste. The survey findings also revealed that four, in every ten people interviewed, noted that they deal with waste by throwing it away, while 335 noted that they burn and dump their waste at designated waste sites.
Rural Area recorded the highest proportion of individuals who burn household waste and Koinadugu the highest proportion who dump waste.
The survey also revealed that 48% of respondents thought there are enough sites to dispose of rubbish; 52% stated that they don’t think so. On average 83% stated they are involved in community cleaning.