Caritas Freetown Supports 40 Flood-Vulnerable Households with Building Materials

Caritas Freetown has provided building materials to 40 vulnerable households in eight communities across Sierra Leone’s Western Area Rural and Urban Districts, with funding from CAFOD.

The support includes bags of cement, zinc sheets, sticks and boxes of roofing nails. The materials are intended to help households repair homes damaged by flooding and improve their ability to withstand future disasters.

Support reaches eight communities

The beneficiary communities are Culvert, Portee, Bonga Town, Gray Bush, Goderich-Crab Tong, Levuma, Waterloo-Bofla and Grafton. Five beneficiaries identified in the report as being in Crab Town, Levuma Beach, were also among those receiving the materials.

The assistance was delivered through Caritas Freetown’s project, “Strengthening Community Flood Preparedness and Early Humanitarian Response for Vulnerable Communities and Households in Western Area Urban and Rural Districts, Sierra Leone.”

Alimatu D. Turay, the project lead, said Caritas had moved from cash support to providing materials after concerns arose over whether cash was always used for its intended purpose.

“This time around, we changed our approach by providing building materials instead of cash support,” Turay said.

She said beneficiary selection took account of the circumstances affecting households in the communities, including the presence of widows and persons with disabilities.

“Within these communities, you have people who are more vulnerable than others. There are widows and persons with disabilities. We considered those prevailing circumstances during the selection process,” she said.

Monitoring planned

Turay said Caritas would return to the communities after six days to assess whether the materials had been used appropriately.

Peter Menjor said part of his responsibility as a board member was to provide oversight and ensure that project reports reflected conditions on the ground.

Dennis Momoh, CAFOD’s Programme Manager for Sierra Leone and Liberia, said his participation was intended to assess whether the project reports matched the situation observed in the communities. He said the visit showed that further intervention was needed.

“After seeing the community, there’s a need for us to do more,” Momoh said. He added that CAFOD was willing to provide additional support, although funding remained a challenge.

Community response

Amadu Jalloh, a community chief and beneficiary, said Caritas had previously supported residents of Crab Town through cash assistance and a community cleaning exercise. He said the cleaning activity helped reduce the severity of flooding and pledged to monitor beneficiaries to ensure the donated materials were used for their intended purpose.

Beneficiary Kadiatu Yillah said flooding damages homes and destroys household property. She expressed appreciation for the assistance, saying, “I pray that the Almighty continues to provide for Caritas and CAFOD so they’ll continue to help not only us, but others who are also in need of this support.”

Representing the Executive Director, Rev. Fr. Paul Jusu said the donation reflected the Catholic Church’s commitment to human dignity and well-being. He also assured vulnerable communities of the Church’s continued support.