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A project to rehabilitate homes destroyed in northeastern Sierra Leone's Kono District during a decade of war has been launched by World Vision, the international NGO reported on Monday.
World Vision said the project used a community-based approach, with families using local materials such as sticks and mortar made of mud to build their homes and the NGO providing corrugated iron sheets for roofing and roofing nails.
Leslie Scott, national director for World Vision in Sierra Leone, said that in an initial assessment of two of Kono's 14 chiefdoms, 1,600 shelters were registered. "With funding we have received so far we can safely target 400 units," Scott added. "We are hoping that by the end of the rainy season [November 2002] we may have attracted funding for the remaining shelters."
According to Justin Bangura of the National Commission for Social Action, a state body, Kono District had a pre-war population of over 500,000 people and was rich in diamonds, which had fuelled and prolonged the rebel war in the district. "The level of devastation in Kono can hardly be surpassed by any region," Bangura was quoted in the World Vision statement as saying at the launching of the project.
President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared the war ended early this year, paving the way for the reconstruction of the country.
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
