Happy holiday season!

2015 has been a very challenging year, as the persistence of the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone and Liberia has put a strain on everybody in the two countries. 

On the positive side, we have been successful in supporting the efforts of the governments, non-governmental and community-based organizations in their fight against the epidemic. During the year, in addition to funding, Irish Aid, along with the Irish Defence Forces, also provided technical support on a number of programmes and strengthened the coordination of the response and recovery process. What’s more, Irish citizens and Irish NGOs made enormous contributions to the Ebola response across the sub-region in a myriad of ways, from running Ebola Treatment Units, to supporting burials, to working on surveillance and social mobilisation. As the year comes to an end, Sierra Leone’s outbreak has been declared over, while Liberia has managed to contain the third round of outbreak.

We want to thank and congratulate all those Irish citizens and organisations who contributed to this progress and who have showed empathy and solidarity with the sufferings of Sierra Leoneans and Liberians over the past 21 months.

On behalf of the Irish Embassy in Freetown and the Irish Aid office in Monrovia I wish you all a very happy holiday season and may the New Year be peaceful and prosperous.

The Embassy in Freetown will be closed from 24th December 2015 to 5th January 2016, for consular emergencies you can contact +232 79250623.

Ambassador Sinead Walsh