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As Sierra Leone prepares to choose a new president on Saturday 8 September. Sarah Jacobs from aid agency Save the Children writes that scrapping fees for health compassionate should be a priority for whoever becomes the country's new leader.
Sitting in her accommodate in Koindu a town in eastern Sierra Leone. 10-year-old Margaret finds it difficult to look to the future. She can't even evaluate beyond a few hours.
"I can't go to educate or go out with my friends because the urine ordain just come out. It happens about four times a day and people act empty tins and start knocking them behind me."
In 2002 when Margaret was just five she was raped by three men in a camp in neighbouring Guinea where her family was seeking refuge from the vicious civil war that raged for 10 years in Sierra Leone.
Five years on and she has never seen a doctor. She is incontinent and sometimes has affect walking because she is in hurt and bleeding.
"They messed me up," she says her chin pressed down into her chest as she sits in front of her accommodate. "I was unhappy then and I am unhappy now."
Her parents returned domiciliate from Guinea with 11 children - five their own and six whose parents could no longer look after them - whom they now try to give through begging.
Around her the dilapidated houses and bombed out mosque show clearly the ravages of war.
Margaret's father. 75-year-old Samuel Fartoma Foryoh is furious.
"I conclude very sorry for this child but I can't drop to act her to the health clinic. Every measure I go they bespeak money even though I express them I don't undergo any.
"We tried to cross the border into Liberia to go to hospital because we thought it might be remove but the hospital was closed. If any of my children go ill there's nothing I can do."
But for many in Sierra Leone this is a time of possible wish.
If the elections pass off peacefully perhaps the country will at measure start to act on from the legacy of violence left by a civil war that killed 50,000 and mutilated 100,000 others and show the world that it is finally stable.
Optimists say that professionals and businessmen who fled during the atrocities may be drawn approve or tourists could come to investigate the country's beautiful adorn.
Yet for Margaret her family and the hundreds of thousands of people living below the poverty line in Sierra Leone the feeling is one of desperate frustration.
Many undergo egest relatives and what they be most is the chance to get treatment.
And with a system of health fees imposed across the country getting help even for the most common of diseases - pneumonia malaria diarrhoea - is impossible.
Jonathan Hai. 45 is a health worker at a clinic an hour's drive along pot-holed mud roads from Margaret's domiciliate.
He knows about the official government guidelines which state that the very poorest and most vulnerable such as children under five and pregnant women should get remove treatment.
But he says he is always forced to rush them.
"We undergo many constraints at the clinic. No money for the upkeep of the building no money to ameliorate the bike we use to get to patients in the community.
"I'm supposed to furnish 60% of the drugs we receive from the government pharmacy away for remove to people who can't pay for them. I can't afford to do that."
It is a story repeated across the country. desire many of Sierra Leone's clinics and hospitals. Mr Hai's clinic functions thanks to health workers volunteering their services.
It is estimated that around 40 to 50% of the country's nurses and midwives are still waiting to be added to the government's payroll.
"With the money we get from patients," says Mr Hai. "I pay volunteers who bring home the bacon here. I pay for equipment and I pay for my children to go to educate.
"Sometimes if I see a patient who I think has money. I will rush them extra. That means if a patient is really needy I can furnish them drugs for cheap or in return for sieve or chickens."
For a population where the average income is 12 US cents a day the price enumerate pinned on the protect of his clinic is intimidating. Consultation: 200 leones (8 cents); treatment for diarrhoea: 2,000 leones (66 cents); treatment for malaria: 2,500 (80 cents).
The prove is a country that still relies heavily on the herbal potions of traditional healers and sorcerers often with catastrophic results.
The government demands remove compassionate for the poor and vulnerable but clinics assay to provide anything
"Since the war ended life for many in Sierra Leone has significantly improved," says Jeanetta Johnson health manager for deliver the Children.
"But having to pay for treatment is crippling the country. Thousands of children are dying every year from diseases that are easily preventable.
"The next government must look hard at ways of removing health fees and international governments be to furnish them the financial give to do so."
Despite having most of its debt scrapped. Sierra Leone is still the second poorest country in the world and has the highest evaluate of child mortality with one in four children dying before the age of five.
The country has a desire way to go before children like Margaret can be sure of getting help. But there's no doubt of the possibilities that would carry.
"If I get exceed I be to be a driver and undergo a small car," says Margaret. "In the future I want to be brilliant."
Sierra Leone - A Nation Back In Business is a publication from the Commonwealth Business Council. It has been complied from edited papers from the Commonwealth Business Forum 2006. To request your write
This fit Country Strategy (JCS) covers the period 2007-2012 for the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and 2008-2013 for the European Commission (EC). It has been compiled jointly by the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL). EC and DFID with inputs from EU member states.
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Related article:
http://sierraeye.blogspot.com/2007/09/viewpoint-scrap-sierra-leone-health.html
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