Tonight I had - as often - contact with a young friend in Sierra Leone. He has no work and income, and tries everything to find a job or earn some money with trade. It occurs that he has no money for food, let alone for investments. This weekend he could get a nice gig as DJ, which he likes to do, but he would risk his health as well as problems with the police, because there's a state of emergency and a curfew from 11 pm tot 7 am. During the day restaurants and bars are allowed to open, but a big club festival isn't allowed. It's a pity that he has to pass for this nice gig.
They have gone through several health crises there in recent years, and every time it's a hard blow. And also, every time (civil war, ebola, corona) education comes to a halt. The spreading of the corona virus in this West-African country is limited till now, but it could hit harder any time. Till now there's 1600 registered cases of corona and 63 deaths. Through the hard lesson of the ebolacrisis the authorities and the people are well prepared for an epidemic, in fact better than the Netherlands. But more than half of the population lives in severe poverty, the average income per inhabitant is according to several sources somewhere between 1100 and 1500 euro's per year, the average life expentancy is 52,2 years.
My young friend (25) has followed a few computer courses last year and he tries everything to find some work to do and he regularly asks me for advice. Via the side I try to bounce the ball back to other contacts in Sierra Leone and the Sierra Leone community. You never know where the ball roles.
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