I AM NOT AN NGO OR UN AGENCY TO FUND PROJECT
First Lady of Sierra Leone, FATIMA JABBE MAADA BIO, has said she’s not a charity organization or UN agency to fund girls’ rights organisations. Fatima Bio wrote on her Facebook account:
“If your reason for not supporting “hands Off Our Girls” is because I did not fund your project means you’ve not done your homework. I don’t get funding from government to fund people’s projects, I am not an NGO or UN agencies. Money no money Rape issue is not for sale. Let us treat RAPE with Honesty.”
Her comment comes in the midst of national anger over the death of 5-year-old Kadijah Saccoh, who was allegedly raped by a male relative.
What prompted the First Lady to make such a comment is unclear. But it’s surely not unconnected to her HANDS OFF OUR GIRLS campaign. Is she being blamed for not supporting women’s organizations enough through the Hands Off Our Girls project.
And the usually blunt First Lady is not new to making controversial comments on national issues. Earlier this year, when a Gambian TV host questioned her over her marriage to the President at a time when some parts of the country were on total blackout, she replied: “Do you expect me to provide light for Bo and Kenema with my own personal money?”
First Lady don tok am: “I don’t get funding from government to fund people’s projects.”