By Hassan Osman Kargbo

The capital city Freetown is facing high levels of youth unemployment which has led to many vibrant young people engaging into a business called “Clean Salone”.

This has been a common practice for many youths in the capital. The “Clean Salone” business model is seen in every corner in the city especially at the central business district.Hardly would someone pass by any street of Freetown without coming in contact with some of these youth that have devoted their time to collecting trash so that the city would appear hygienic.

“Clean Salone” is a job that sees young people moving around Freetown, going through streets, compounds and other areas to collect waste materials that are deposited into dumpsites for meagre sums of money.

Say what you may, the youth engaged in the “Clean Salone” business are contributing to the cleanliness of the city. It is not a secret that Freetown is not a clean city because of the amount of waste that is sighted on a daily basis within the municipality.

Speaking to Forum News SL, Mohamed Foray, who is young and energetic in appearance, is among the youth that are engaged in the “Clean Salone” business said that he got involved in the “Clean Salone” business for his daily survival.According to him, he is aware that “Clean Salone” is not a good job for him, but noted that he does not have an option ‘unless I engage in it for survival’.

He continued that because of the current hardship in the country, “Clean Salone” is the business that he had devoted himself to do over the past seven month.

‘I don’t have an option unless I do the Clean Salone business. I have been doing it for the past seven months; I know it is not a pleasant job because of the intimidations we normally face on the streets,’ he said.

He noted that some people normally take advantage of their situation, by giving them as low as NLe2 after they had taken a huge chunk of trash to the dumpsites.

He continued that some people don’t have regard for their job, saying that they normally face abuse in the street in the exercise of their duty.

Abu Sesay who is also engaged in the “Clean Salone” business told Forum News SL that, he decided to get involved because he didn’t have any means to sustain himself unless he does the “Clean Salone” business.

‘Before I get engaged in any unlawful acts, I decided to start this business few months ago,’ he posited.

Meanwhile, Forum News SL observed that the majority of youth in garbage collection are predominantly street children that choose to be on the street voluntarily or otherwise, while others are employed by owners of tricycle trucks, either on weekly or monthly basis.

The intervention of the Freetown City Council and other development partners in the long standing war against garbage proliferation in the municipality and its environs has created an opportunity for many community development organisations to dedicate tricycles to the collection and deposal of waste in the capital and its environs thereby creating jobs for many deprived and venerable youth, to date.