By Sr. Vera Owoh, Province of Africa
Sometimes nature hits us hard that we as human beings feel helpless. When the earth heaves and wakes it sometimes brings about untold misery. Across the globe, we hear of typhoons, tornadoes, hurricane and cloud burst, to name but a few. Just recently, Guatemala experienced a disaster caused by volcanic eruption. These are unpredictable disasters, even though nowadays science tries to forecast with the help of sophisticated instruments.
One such disaster hit Freetown in Sierra Leone, West Africa in August 2017; it was heavy flooding and mudslides. This particular coast of the country is annually subject to ferocity and the ravage of heavy rain that leads to loss of lives and property. Even though the residents were warned of the dangers and asked to evacuate, and military personnel were deployed to guard the reserve forest on the mountain, some people did not evacuate because they did not have anywhere to go. This environment had become a home for them during the war. Sadly, the forest became a lucrative business for the soldiers who cut down trees for charcoal and sold to the people. The people stayed on and continued with their daily life, and life was normal until the unexpected happened.
It was early hours of the morning when the disaster hit. The rain poured non-stop and houses were submerged, the power failed and darkness engulfed the entire city. There was nothing but a cry for help from the victims.
When the morning dawned the rain abated but what an awful aftermath. In the flood that followed, many people lost their lives, and bodies of some were retrieved from the mud. Those who survived looked dazed and numb, having lost all their belongings and their loved ones. Their call for help was heeded by the church, sympathetic nations and non-governmental organizations. Rescue work was taken up by the government and Red Cross units.
Months later, as government resumed work at the bottom of the site, there were still missing people that were unaccounted for, and the disaster became one of those terrible happenings that could never be erased from the memory of Sierra Leone. (Read more about the landslide here.)
It is possible to avert some disasters when the people begin to heed to the call to ecological conversion and living compatibly with nature. It remains a challenge and a call for us as School Sisters of Notre Dame, more so as Shalom people, to continue in the path of educating people and creating awareness on living compatibly with nature.
May God bless us as we pay more attention to and care for Mother Earth!
