MEDIA & SOCIETY Government Delay Reparations For Children Born of Amputees in Sierra Leone Posted by Ishmael Dumbuya with Support From the BBC World Service Trust on Sep 29, 2008, 00:43

After a long break, children in Sierra Leone are back to school. They happily walk to their classes with uniforms and books and meet their new teachers. Parents visit the bursars and unravel money from their cloths to pay for their children’s fees. Unfortunately, this is not the case for many Sierra Leonean children born of amputees.In Jui amputee camp, many children are not attending school because government has delayed the reparations they promised in 2004.The Jui amputee camp is a new site along the Jui-waterloo highway in the Eastern part of Freetown. It is nestled about 200 meters from the Freetown Waterloo highway. The camp is built on flat land not too far from the Rokel River.  

Ten families live in the camp. Most of them are war wounded, amputees and their dependants. After the war, they were relocated here by the government and given homes. But since then, government has provided little support for education, health and economic needs. In Jui camp, mothers struggle to feed their families through petty trade and selling stones. Piles of these rocks are placed at the front and back of each plot to prompt buyers. Children are normally found helping their parents with hard labor to help feed their families.

Today many children in Jui camp are at home crying because they can’t attend school. Solomon and John Josiah are both children of Mr. Francis Josiah who was amputated during the war and died in 2002. Last year, the two children were attending Kossoh Town Primary School about 500 meters from their home. But this year, they can’t go because they can’t afford to pay school fees or buy uniforms and books.“I love schooling and wanted to learn and I found it very difficult when I was driven from school,” says elder brother John Josiah who is supposed to be starting class 6.But John says he knows what will happen if he shows up at school and can’t pay.

“If my mother does not pay for these charges at the school, the teacher will beat me first before sending me home and warning me not to come back until I pay my charges,” he says. John’s younger brother, Solomon, is also upset because he can’t attend school this year. He says he will be forced to do other work instead of learning to read. “When I am not in school, I will be at home gathering stones all day,” he says. The boy’s mother, Kadiatu Josiah says she is worried because the future of her children is in jeopardy because instead of studying, they are sitting at home playing and doing menial jobs. Kadiatu Josiah shouldn’t have to worry about paying for her children’s education. In its 2004 report, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended that victims of the war be provided with free education, including those children born of amputees.

The TRC recommendation states that free education should be provided until secondary school for “children of amputees, other war wounded if their parents experienced a %50 or more reduction in earning capacity as a result of the violation committed against them.”The TRC considered this recommendation ‘imperative’, meaning government had an obligation to provide free education immediately after the report was published. But some people don’t think government is committed to this recommendation. Mr. Alhajie Lamin Jusu Jakka is the President for the Amputee and War Wounded Association in Sierra Leone. He also lives in Jui camp.

“A lot has been said about free education for the amputee children but no proper measures have been put in place to fulfill that promise,” he says.Jakka says families alone are paying school fees and buying books for their children despite what the government promised. The National Commission for Social Action is responsible for the implementation of the TRC and should ensure that children of amputees get free education. However, the Reparation Unit within NaCSA was only established a few weeks ago. To date, no one in this country, including amputees and their children, have received any form of compensation.

The Director of Reparations within the unit is Mr. Obi Buya Kamara. He says reparations have not been provided because government alone doesn’t have enough money to fulfill all the recommendations made by the TRC.“Government has been soliciting funds from the international community to implement the TRC recommendations. But it’s only been this year that government has allocated 3 million dollars from the Peace Building Fund for reparations,” he says. Kamara insists the Reparations Unit has a package for amputees along with their dependents that does include free education. “We are definitely going to assist these children but it is very difficult to state a time,” he says.

Before dolling out the reparations, the unit will first need to register all of its beneficiaries.  Kamara says he is presently organizing an outreach section to provide mass education about the reparation fund to ensure victims are not excluded.“We need to launch this programme where people have to register. Only then will they be given beneficiary cards so they can claim assistance,” he says.

Meanwhile, the children at the Jui Amputee Camp are still yearning to go school. Government might be promising free education for the future, but for now John and Solomon Josiah will have to stay home and work instead. They hope their government will step in and help before they become school drop outs altogether.