By Hassan Lansana Koroma
The Director of Pikin Bizness, Dr. Adonis Aboud, has on Friday told journalists that his organization has facilitated a trip for one-year-old Mariama J. Jalloh, who has been battling with heart disease from birth.
He disclosed that the lad will be flown to France on June 10th, 2025 to undergo a surgery and stay there for two month on observation.
He said his organization has not only helped children with heart disease, but also treated different cases of which Marima Juldeh Jalloh is not an exception.
Barely one year after helping a child with a hole in his heart and providing other humanitarian assistance to vulnerable groups in the country, he said Pikin Bizness has made tremendous impacts by saving three more children with heart defects in separate successful operations abroad.
He narrated that in January, 2001, three of them launched Pikin Bizness and that in the first three years, in collaboration with WFP, the US Embassy, and UNAMSIL, with sponsorship from DSTV/SL, a helicopter was flown country-wide during the Christmas holiday on each of those years, distributing gifts ranging from sweets, drinks, radio sets, school bags, to educational materials to children.
He said Caritas Makeni, International Medical Corp and other NGOs helped identified the children.
He said four years later, in 2005, having spotted a campaign launched by the Exclusive Newspaper, advertising and appealing for help for Abu Bakarr Jalloh, a six-year-old boy with a hole in his heart, Pikin Bizness embarked on a larger campaign targeting mainly children with heart deficiencies, especially children with holes in their hearts and other related diseases.
After the campaign, he said Pikin Bizness then embarked on a larger campaign in the country to raise funds to save the life of a young boy who was about to die.
In an interview with the mother of Mariama, Saudatu Barrie, told journalists that her daughter’s condition began one week after birth, and that they have sought treatment from various hospitals in Kabala and Freetown.
She said immediately they had contact with Pikin Bizness, she believed that her daughter’s ailment would be healed,stating that they have faced serious constraints, from medical, finance to raising a child.
She noted that all she is praying for is her daughter’s well-being.
