still in pain, writing about my pitiable plight and that of many others enrolled here at the N’jala University, if this is your first time of visiting here, you might want to check on the on-campus category to read my previous pots (part 1&2) on ‘The untold story of students’ life at Njala University, Njala Campus’
As we all know, the most important structure to have in a community is a hospital. Most of us that are here are from other provinces and the capital, Freetown. Some of us are asthma patients, sickle cell, stomach pain, malaria, ulcer and some are regular ill persons. Still, to my surprise, the hospital that we have here sometimes don’t even have malaria tablets and sometimes no sufficient medicines. I remembered six months ago when I had side pains that were terrifying for me. I began to moan when the pain attacked me at around 12:00 am. My friends in the same room helped me with some tabs and rubs, but the pain kept hitting me to an extent I’d thought I was going to die.
At around 1:15 am in the morning, one of my colleagues went to the university’s hospital to see if I could get treated; to our surprise, it was dark!!!!
No one was at the hospital, not even security personnel. With the help of God and my friends, we managed to salvage the situation by rubbing hot rubs that one of my friends bought just in case. This is the risk we are in here. It could have been someone with a worst-case scenario, who knows? I took a surveillance watch to the hospital and found out that the structure that we thought was a hospital is not but a napping house. The hospital meant for thousands of students and thousands of community people is not well equipped and lack the status of a hospital. Most of the nurses are not well educated, or if I may say not well trained to do the job. Some are just family members (sabi sabi) that have little or no experience in health care. It’s a worrying situation for us. Most of the time, when I got sick, I just packed my bag and go to the capital, Freetown, for treatment and so do others. We don’t trust this hospital. The question I keep asking myself is, for how long would I be going to the capital Freetown whenever I got sick? What if it is an emergency? At one time, a colleague of mine was attacked by malaria and was taken to the hospital for treatment but there were no malaria drugs in the hospital; instead, the doctor directed them to a pharmacy and it is surprising to note that, the pharmacy also didn’t have any. It was terrifying for them, and also it’s sad for us to realize that even if we got sick by a worst-case scenario; especially at midnight we won’t be attended to because the hospital only operates from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm. Our health is at stake. We’re not safe.
My experience so far at Njala hasn’t been a great one, but one full of depression, stress, and anxiety. Life at this campus isn’t on the right side for us. 99% of us here are suffering. There is more to share with you, more to write about, I shall be doing this once in a while and hope you at Salone Messenger contiinue keep my name anonymous, for my degree amidst the situation here is so important to me. Knowing fully well that my family, Government, and people from across the world reading this, do something to make a change, if not for us, but for those after us not go through the same situation.
