The Town Chief of Walehun Village in Kono District, Foday Tholley, has called on government and the general public to help rebuild their houses, 20 years after the country’s civil war.
Mr Tholley made the call during an interview with a group of journalists in the village. He was responding to support extended to his community by a senior civil servant, Augustine Sahr Sheku, who is the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Mr Sheku promised to help rebuild 10 of the over 20 ramshackle houses in the village.
Walehun, comprising a population of over 700 inhabitants, according to local authorities, is the first community in Kono District from neighbouring Tonkolili District.
Kono, which is in the eastern part of Sierra Leone, where the 1991-2002 civil war started, is the heart of Sierra Leone’s a diamond riches. It is also one of the most affected by the war. Most of its infrastructure were destroyed, according to a United Nations assessment.
Despite its riches and the war time destruction, many Kono people believe that the district hasn’t received the support it deserves in terms of post-war reconstruction.
The feeling of neglect is even more prominent among individual families, as is obvious in Walehun, a predominantly agrarian community, where many others make a living on charcoal burning, at the expense of their surrounding forest.
According to the Town Chief, since the end of the war, only few of the residents of the village were able to rebuild their houses to a basic status.
Chief Foday informed journalists that among other serious challenges, housing constraint is the most pressing issue for them. He was grateful though that Mr Sheku delivered his promise by providing trips of sand and other building materials.
One of the 10 houses that will benefit from Sheku’s gesture is Mariama Koroma’s. A widow, Mrs Koroma’s house will be reconstructed. After expressing her appreciation, she narrated that together with her other family members she does not sleep whenever it rains because there are leakages everywhere on her roof. Holes were visible on the roof from inside the buildings.
The outside view of most of the houses in Walehun gives the impression that they have not been inhabited for a long time.
Mr Sheku said the construction work of the houses will commence on the 26th June.
Commenting on what motivated him to undertake such a venture, he said he has on several occasions been intervening in helping people faced with similar cases especially in Kono District, immediately after the war.
“No civilised person would like to see his people living in misery and not do anything about it. So I saw the pitiful state of Walehun and I know that it is the first town in Kono District from Tonkolili,” he said.
Sheku said he’d first wanted to provide solar light for the village, considering the darkness that engulfs it at night. But he then thought that it would be better to address their main concern – the relegated housing conditions.
“So I spoke to a few people and we mobilised some building materials like zinc, cement. I went to my village, I saw boards that I have and I am going to get the youths to help me to help out the people of Walehun to have basic housing, so that we can solve that misery that is there,” he said.
