The Lord Mayor of Kingston upon Hull, Councillor Anita Harrison has today called for urgent support for one of our twinned cities, Freetown.
Torrential rainfall in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, last week led to severe flooding which has seen lives lost and thousands of residents have had to flee their homes which have been destroyed. Emergency accommodation has been set up at the National Stadium to provide people who have lost their homes with somewhere to stay until the floods have subsided and the government can allocate land for homes to be rebuilt.
In a country just recovering from Ebola this disaster has traumatised families and especially children.
The Freetown Society has set up an urgent appeal for funding to help those families who are now living in the open stadium with support from local charity organisations, UNICEF and the Sierra Leone Red Cross. The Freetown Society has had a link with Freetown since 1981 and seeks to strengthen links between the communities of Hull and Freetown.
The Lord Mayor said: “People were so generous last time with their donations to help Freetown fight Ebola, one of the worst affected areas and I hope that people will again show their support and generosity.
“Our thoughts are with the 3,800 people from Freetown whose have lost everything in this natural disaster. We hope that the donations from people in this area collected by the Freetown Society will go some way in helping to support the recovery of people and the city.”
Because of the long term relationship the Freetown Society has with local organisations on the ground any help goes directly to those that need it. By donating to this fund raising effort it will help local organisations provide urgently needed food, clothing and medicine to desperate people in Freetown.
Please give any funds you can by donating through the Freetown Society crowd funding page https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/freetown
or by sending a cheque payable to: Freetown Society, The Guildhall, Hull HU1 2AA.
