Published: Wednesday, 08 July 2015 17:17
The Sierra Leone Indigenous Traditional Healers Union (SLITHU), in collaboration with FOCUS 1000 and SMAC, on Saturday 27th June 2015 organized a day’s workshop on ‘The Role of Traditional Healers in Ending Ebola in Sierra Leone’ at Hotel 5:10, Kissy in Freetown.The workshop aimed to actively engage traditional healers across the country to scale up their contribution to government and other partners efforts in ending Ebola in the country.
In his opening statement the President of SLITHU, Alhaji Dr. Suliaman Kabba highlighted the challenges faced by traditional healers since the onset of Ebola; he emphasized the loss of income from traditional healing however he assured that with the collaborative support of government, religious leaders, stakeholders and the traditional healers the virus will be eradicated.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of FOCUS 1000, Alhaji Mohamed Bailor Jalloh expressed his apprecaiton of the coordinated support of the traditional healers in organisng this event in the Holy Month of Ramadan, adding that they should engage their members and continue to encourage them to uphold Ebola preventive measures.
The Union was formed to coordinate the affairs of traditional healers in the country. Since the onset of the outbreak they have been working tirelessly in the campaign to stop Ebola transmission. As part of their strategy to accelerate efforts they announced embarking on mobilizing members to start a national campaign “bush to bush” to search secret sites in Kambia and Port Loko districts which are the current Ebola hotspots, to ensure that traditional healers do not the treat sick or engage in secret burials.
