CLA empowers rural women

A local nongovernmental organization under the banner Centers for Liberian Assistance (CLA) has embarked on a loan scheme for women in Montserrado and Grand Cape Mount counties.

Speaking Friday, January 9, 2015 at the Ministry of information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism’s daily press briefing, the Executive Director for the Centers for Liberian Assistance Madam Hawa Bropleh, said the organization has a passion to empowering rural women, saying, “We notice that many women finds it difficult to make a living at this time where the deadly Ebola virus is on the increase in our country.

She said the primary objective in the two counties is child protection, women empowerment, and active engagement with the society.

Madam Bropleh added that the exercise is to buttress government’s effort in supporting vulnerable citizens, especially with the kind of crisis (Ebola) that incapacitate parents from adequately supporting their children.

She said many parents were sent home from their various places of work during the peak of the Ebola outbreak with no specific time provided for them to return, something which created the opportunity to respond to their needs.

The deadly Ebola Virus which hit Liberia in March 2014 from neighboring Guinea seriously affected three countries in the subregion: Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia with many investments crippled and the economies of the three countries plummeted.

Doctors, nurses, health workers and ordinary citizens lost their lives to the virus.

Madam Bropleh narrated that CLA is also involved educating rural residents on the danger of the Ebola virus through massive awareness campaign.  “People in rural parts of the country need to have more knowledge about the Ebola virus, something which will encourage them to suspend traditional practices”, she said, noting that there are people who still doubt the existence of the Ebola virus.

She disclosed that her organization is working in 12 communities in Montserrado, including Soul Clinic, Paynesville, and Redlight and two   communities in Grand Cape Mount namely Tewor and Sinje where CLA has constructed an Ebola Treatment Unit or (ETU) to buttress government’s effort in containing the virus.

Executive Director Bropleh said the  Centers is also training 50 peer educators for both Montserrado and Grand Cape Count counties to work with the various communities in the eradication of the Ebola virus form Liberia.