By Abubakarr Bah, Information Attaché, Saudi Arabia.
Pilgrims from Sierra Leone who are participating in this year’s Hajj (1444/2023) say they are pleased with the hospitality provided by the Presidential Hajj Task Force of the Government of Sierra Leone.
While narrating their experiences, the pilgrims said they were very pleased and comfortable with the hospitality provided for them in Makkah.
The pilgrims said they were being accommodated in spacious rooms of a hotel in Makkah, which is located about a 15-minute walk to the Masjid Alharam mosque or Kaa’ba, Islam’s holiest site.
Some pilgrims said that they were provided with food 3 times a day, although the food was not the same as their staple food back home.
The pilgrims therefore appealed to the Government of Sierra Leone to fully implement the “local content policy in the Hajj by ensuring that pilgrims who perform Hajj in Makkah feel at home” by getting their local food during the Hajj.
A team of 5 medical personnel are attending to the health needs of the pilgrims participating in the Hajj.
One of the medical personnel of the Presidential Hajj Task Force Dr. Idriss Tejan said that the pilgrims mostly complain of body pains, common cold, and fatigue, “which are usually common during Hajj”.
“We have a designated apartment in the hotel for medical services. We are rendering the requisite medical services to the pilgrims as and when they come,” Dr. Tejan said.
Ambassador Dr. Ibrahim Jalloh, Head of Mission of the Embassy of Sierra Leone in Saudi Arabia, commended His Excellency President Dr. Julius Maada Bio for appointing the Presidential Hajj Task Force, which he said did a tremendous job for the pilgrims in the area of Hajj registration, medical screening, departure of the pilgrims, and health care.
He said the medical personnel of the Presidential Hajj Task Force have been doing tremendously well in attending to ailing pilgrims.
Ambassador Dr. Ibrahim Jalloh disclosed that the Hajj rituals were almost complete and that the pilgrims were expected to return back home tentatively on the 22nd of July 2023.
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