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The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Sierra Leone Red Cross society have begun distributing seed, tools and other relief items to about 40,000 farm families averaging six members each.
ICRC said the distributions, which will initially cover the areas of Tonkolili, in the centre, and Kenema in the southeast, will expand in early May to the districts around Kailahun and Pujehun, in the east.
Focusing on the poorest people, the Red Cross has registered some 13,000 families in Tonkolili, 13,000 in Kenema, 8,700 in Kailahun and about 5,300 in Pujehun. Among the beneficiaries are internally displaced people (IDPs), returning refugees and farmers who never left, but lost everything during the war.
Each of the families will receive 40 kg of swamp and upland seed-rice, 10 kg of groundnuts, six varieties of imported vegetable seeds, three types of local seeds and hoes. Some 30,000 families will also receive plastic sheeting, blankets, sleeping mats, buckets, kitchen sets and soap.
The first convoys left Freetown and Kenema on 20 April and the
distribution is expected to be completed by the beginning of June.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions