In Sierra Leone – government’s answer to Ebola, a bar of 72% soap!

Freetown, Sierra Leone, September 20, 2014 – House to house sensitization and medical supplies – I was obviously over-estimating our government’s role in the 3 day lock down! (Photo: 72% soap, my protection to Ebola)

The streets were cleared as if Ebola has struck down the whole nation. An eerie silence fell over Freetown as citizens holed themselves up crammed in their homes for government to come house to house, knocking doors to sensitize citizens on the dreaded Ebola, physically check for the Ebola-stricken and advise on how to avoid the disease.

Not a soul came knocking on my door yesterday. However, this morning an individual came to the gate and entered the yard. Armed with a plastic bag of soaps and wearing an Ebola t-shirt, he had little else to offer. I will give him his due, he did embark on lecturing how to protect yourself from the disease and thrust one bar of 72% soap in my direction. I asked him what the soap was for, and he answered for washing hands. Now I don’t know if you know about 72% soap, but I wouldn’t even recommend it for washing clothes! I asked the man what one bar of 72% soap for a household of 5-10 people was going to do! With a sticker on the wall and the house “checked off”, he was on his way to deliver his next bar of soap. He did exactly what he was told to do.

I am not knocking the man for going about and doing his bit to combat Ebola, but what on earth is our government thinking? One man and a bar of 72% soap. No one in my establishment had their temperature checked, no search or enquiry was done to find hidden relatives ravaged with Ebola! Just one solitary man, on a mission, delivering a single bar of 72% soap per household, regardless of the size of family.

I have no idea who sent him, whether it was government, health ministry, business, or some aid group.

Is this why our country was on lock down? I think not.

Why did our government not do a massive national campaign, not just the city of Freetown, but the whole country and use the money to utilize the resources available, the press, radio stations, television, telephone companies, internet, people in the streets with loudspeakers, etc? And, where are all the MPs of constituencies hiding? Why are they not out there standing by the people who got them their seat in Parliament after promising to make life better for their locality? Alas, many of them have taken their fat wages and scattered until the coast is clear.

The whole event has cost the country billions of Leones, and individuals have lost their meager income not working for 3 days. Our people are struggling day to day just to put one meal on the table for their families, and many go to bed with empty stomachs fed on nothing but hunger pain.

Meanwhile out on the empty streets at night we have drunk police at western and eastern checkpoints requesting money from those with passes to travel around, saying man dey bad.

The plan might in general have been a good idea, but the implementation of said plan was nothing short of a waste of money, 72%soap, and time! I hope that any further plans are better thought out and implemented in a more constructive manner.

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