Pastoral Arts Associates of North America
The following report
is from Catholic News Service (CNS), August 2, 1999:
CRS rehabilitates houses for displaced population
KISSY, Sierra Leone (CNS) -- Catholic Relief Services has embarked on the rehabilitation of 100 houses in Kissy to provide shelter for people displaced by war. ``Many families are presently suffering in displaced persons camps. This is the rainy season, conditions have become worse in the camps,'' said Solomon Foray, a supervisor of the project run by CRS, the international relief and development agency of the U.S. bishops. The rehabilitation is carried out at a low-cost housing development provided by the government in the 1970s for low-income earners at Kissy, two miles from the coastal city of Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone.
'MAKENI CARITAS' ON THE FRONT LINE IN CIVILIAN ASSISTANCE (BRIEF, CHURCH/RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS)
“A medical team arrived in Makeni on Tuesday”. This was the declaration released to MISNA by Ibrahim Andrew Sesay, Director of the diocesan Caritas of Makeni. “The team – he explained – consists of 10 nurses, divided into two operative relief units. The people are suffering from hunger and the weaker ones, particularly the children, are disease-ridden. The humanitarian initiative was organised in Makeni (160 km from the capital, Freetown) by the diocesan Caritas, in collaboration with 'Memisa Holland', to meet the needs of the desperate civil population, devastated by the civil war. The Makeni Caritas also organised an assistance centre for former baby-soldiers in Port Loko (120 km from Freetown). “At the moment – continued Sesay – we are hosting 45 minors, who have suffered unspeakable psychological damage. Our aim is to eventually reintroduce them into society. Aside from assisting them, we also attempt to trace their families through our operators”. Makeni will soon have an assistance centre, like the one in Port Loko. (BO)