Following an urgent request from Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health, UNHRD’s Rapid Response Team has helped make 1,000m³ of additional storage space available for the Central Medical Stores (CMS) in Freetown.
In just ten days, the debris of a warehouse that burned down last year was cleared and a large new tent erected in its place.
The storage issue was noticed in early February as the World Food Programme (WFP) transported medical items for the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Ebola response. Stephen Cahill, Chief of WFP Common Services in Sierra Leone reached out to CMS with a proposal to erect a large storage tent.
Before erecting the new tent, the walls and debris from the former warehouse were removed with financial and in-kind support from the Rotary Club of Freetown and Nimo Construction. Demolition with two excavators, one front loader and two trucks took place over one weekend.
The next day, the tent’s metal frame, lighting and fencing material arrived from the Logistics Cluster’s hub in Port Loko, and within days the new facilities were complete.
The storage facility was handed over by WFP’s Emergency Coordinator, Gerard Vandijk, to the Ministry of Health, represented by Bassie Turay, Director of Drugs and Medical Supplies at the CMS, on 17 February.