By Simitie Lavaly | Executive Director
As you are already aware, the Ebola epidemic started in Sierra Leone in early 2014 and to date over 7,000 people have contracted the virus, with 2,366 confirmed dead. With your support of our critical and timely intervention in the work of prisons, we have been able to supply Ebola prevention items to 5 prisons holding a total of 164 female detainees and employing close to 130 prison officers across Sierra Leone.
In September 2014 we made the initial supplies to Freetown (capital city), Bo (southern regional headquarter city) and Makeni (northern regional headquarter city) prisons. Each prison was provided with medicated soap, disinfectant materials, disposable gloves and chlorine hand-wash stations. Pictures of these donations can be viewed on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/AdvocAidSierraLeone).
In December 2014, we continued our donations to Kono (eastern regional town) and Kenema (eastern regional headquarter city). We aim to donate to the remaining prisons in Port Loko and Magburaka once the quarantine restrictions are lifted in the Northern region.
In Bo city, our paralegal Lucy Bockarie-Gbay donated the items to the Head of Bo Prison, with the Officer in charge of the Female section and the 12 female Prisoners present. One of the beneficiary female prisoners is KG, a middle-aged woman who is has been in custody since June 2012. She is standing trial for the alleged murder of a man whom she had attacked whilst defending her husband from the victim’s attack. The victim was injured and unfortunately died shortly after from lack of adequate medical treatment. Our donation has enabled KG to disinfect her bath water and keep her prison cell clean. The prison officers also use the supplies to keep safe and prevent the spread of the disease to her and other inmates. Meanwhile, we have continued providing legal representation for KG in court.
In the next few months we wish to continue supporting prisons through our Ebola prevention work and we rely on your continued support of this project. We will also extend the prevention work to police stations where female inmate are detained before they enter the court system and are sent to prison.
For more insight about our work, please see a documentary done by IRIN concerning women’s experiences of the criminal justice system in Sierra Leone. This can viewed at http://www.irinnews.org/report/100211/new-film-sierra-leone-apos-s-women-behind-bars and an article in the Guardian - http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/oct/15/ebola-sierra-leone-pariah-nation
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