|
|
Sierra Leone: World's Poorest Country
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Concord Times (Freetown)
10 December 2007
Posted to the web 10 December 2007
Mariama Kandeh and Danny Glenwright
Freetown
Another of Sunkari Conteh's children is sick. The last/ time one of her children was ill, it died.
Almost three years old, her daughter succumbed to diarrhoea because Conteh couldn't afford to pay a Le 90,000 medical consultation fee.
"I pleaded with the doctor to wait while my husband gathered the money," she said. "The doctor refused.
I cried and yelled at him, but he didn't listen." As she cried again this past Saturday, Conteh recalled that she was able to take her baby to a pharmacy, but after a few days, her daughter died anyway. "I don't even like to think about it, it's terrible, it's pathetic." Now Conteh is worried another of her children may suffer the same fate. Once again, she can't afford the fees to vaccinate her youngest child.
The Kroo Bay mother has four children and provides for them by selling oranges in the streets of her community. Her husband is unemployed.
Conteh is like thousands of Sierra Leonean mothers struggling to survive in what last week the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) announced is now the poorest country in the world.
Sierra Leone has taken Niger's spot at the very bottom of the UN's human development index. According to the UN global report, launched in Freetown last Friday, this country is now ranked 177th out of 177 countries.
But the international 2005 findings are bleaker than a 2006 national report, which was also launched Friday.
The UNDP claimed Sierra Leone fell to the lowest place because there is insufficient information about the country.
"I believe the situation would have been much better if there was adequate data to show for development in the country," said Bernard Mokam, the UNDP's country director.
But Saidu Turay, the Public Relations Officer for Freetown's Kroo Bay slum, wasn't surprised when he heard the report on the radio.
"Once these reports come up we feel sad," he said.
"It's a clear manifestation that nothing has been done since the time of the last report. The health care system is very, very poor." Turay said just last Friday a baby died in his community because there was no treatment. As he discussed the report from the doorway of the one-bedroom Kroo Bay shack he shares with several members of his family, a woman entered his compound shouting and crying - she'd just heard that she, too, had lost a family member to sickness.
"If Sierra Leone is rated as the least developed country, then Kroo Bay will be rated as the worst developed slum in the country," said Turay.
He said the Kroo Bay community suffers from high maternal and infant mortality, high unemployment, low rate of children in school, lack of housing, lack of proper medical facilities, high crime, child labour, trafficking and prostitution, sexual abuse, teenage pregnancy and many other problems.
Turay rolled his eyes. "Etcetera, etcetera - these are the things that affect us in the community and these are the things the UN looked at when they were doing their study." Turay said in the last three months, three Kroo Bay women have died during childbirth because they couldn't afford to go to hospital or have a caesarean section. Conteh, too, said she delivered her five children with a traditional birth attendant in Kroo Bay.
"I don't have the money. Life is extremely difficult, I am right now suffering from malaria, but I don't have the money to go to hospital," she said.
Turay said this is common in Kroo Bay: "If you don't have the money to buy the required drugs, the person dies." With a growing population of more than 8,000 people, Kroo Bay is one of many Freetown slums long neglected by development projects and the government. Turay said it is extreme poverty like Kroo Bay's that accounts for the country's poor performance on the human development index.
|
On Friday, Vice President Sam Sumana said his government is re-preparing a poverty reduction strategy paper from the last government, which he said "will stand as a stepping stone towards development." He also said the new government is committed to combating the problems raised in the report.
Turay said the APC government should be aware of the problems after years in opposition. He said he doubts anything will change.
"During the electioneering process you saw a lot of politicians coming down to the slums and making all kinds of promises because they wanted our votes," he said. "But once the election is over you hardly see any of them, even to say thank you for the votes.
|
hi
i won't be surprise if one of the richest country in world full of minerals become the poorest country in the world. what a beautiful country, the problem is the politicians destroying the country especially the past so called SLPP government.A government where every one can steal and the charge or fine will be less than what you steal. Here in the UK stealing is known as fraud which i do believe that you may will be get away with crime than fraud.
i know you might think they stupid by doing this, but for them they believe that... [Read Full Text]
hi
i won't be surprise, if one of the richest country in world (sierra Leone) full of minerals become the poorest country in the world. what a beautiful country, the problem is the politicians destroying the country especially the past so called SLPP government.A government where every one can steal and the charge or fine will be less than what you steal. Here in the UK stealing is known as fraud which i do believe that you may be get away with crime than fraud.
i know you might think they stupid by doing this, but for them they believe... [Read Full Text]
I believe that journalists who work for such a wideread newspaper should know how to use the English language for publication. The 1st thing that caught my eye when reading your article was "it died". A child is not an "it". I believe he or she would be the correct term to use in this circumstance. Please ask your editors to "edit" your articles before printing. thanks
Thanks Nazarene for raising that up. I wonder what going on with these so-called 'editor'/writers. Pls some of us would like to introduce our children to such informative sites. Do us a favour: 'teach them proper grammar'.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
