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A DISEASE SPREAD THROUGH LOVE AND SYMPATHY

UNDP's response to the Ebola crisis in Liberia

November 25^th, 2014

In many of the areas of Liberia that were hardest hit by the ebola in July and August, there are fewer new ebola cases, but no-one has been left unaffected. Hundreds of children are orphaned, and the community is struggling to care for them all. They face stigmatization and financial problems. Many are severely traumatized.

UNDP staff are visiting communities to hear the stories of those who have fought the disease within communities, to hear how they did it and the problems they faced, so that any future outbreak can be dealt with in the most effective way. But more importantly, UNDP wants to talk to those who are still affected to find out the best way to help them. UNDP will soon start its early recovery programmes, initiatives that include direct cash transfers and support to county level government administration to help people quickly get their lives back on track.

A DISEASE SPREAD THROUGH LOVE AND SYMPATHY

Banjor is 45 minutes drive from central Monrovia. People survive through farming and selling in the nearby Douala market. The first person from Banjor to catch ebola died on July 19 this year, and the disease spread quickly. Community leaders told UNDP staff that there was utter panic.

“We didn‘t know what to do,” said A. Ishmael Kamara, Community Chairman. “In one house an entire family died, and the bodies were inside for two days. We called 4455 (the ebola hotline) but there was no answer. People were being turned away from hospital. Others had fever and we didn‘t know if it was malaria or ebola – we still don‘t know. People wanted to run away but we weren‘t allowed to leave the area.” In total, 111 people have died – 48 men, 32 women and 31 children.

Everyone in the community has a relative or friend who has died from ebola. Some families were hit worse than others. Hawa Musa was living in a house with her husband, brother, sister and brother-in-law, all their children and several renters. Of 25 people living in the house, 17 have died from ebola. Hawa now looks after ten children, some of them orphans from neighbouring families, with no income while dealing with the grief of losing her husband, two daughters and many relatives and friends. “All I can do is pray,” she said.

In another house live three women, Bindu Sonnie, and sisters Dudu and Satta Kromah. All three lost their husbands to ebola. Now, in addition to their own children, they‘ve taken in 27 children from other families whose parents have died. Dudu cares for a 3-month old baby, and her exhaustion shows in her face. “I don‘t know how we can keep doing this,” she said as she fed the baby a bottle. “We‘re just living day to day, we have no income since our husbands died. It‘s a struggle to feed all these children.”

Amjad Kiazolu was one of the community members who organised a local ebola taskforce with the help of the World Health Organisation and NGO Samaritan‘s Purse. He described the pain of watching friends and relatives suffer. “This disease is spread by love and sympathy,” he said. “ When a loved one is suffering, the natural response is to go to them and comfort them. At the beginning so many people could not watch their children suffer, they cared for them and then they too got infected.”

The ebola taskforce members described how they worked non-stop visiting households, spreading the message that ebola is real and educating people on how to prevent infection. “We knew that we had to get people to wash their hands with bleach,” said Kamara, “but then their skin started peeling off and they thought they had skin cancer. We went around to make sure the mix was right, otherwise they‘d stop using it.”

There were no gloves in Banjor, so the taskforce made sure everyone who had to touch an infected person put a plastic bag over their hand instead – an approach that may have saved hundreds of lives. The taskforce implemented strict controls – anyone who came to the community was accompanied by several community members who monitored their movements, and they had to leave again at the end of the day. They say that it was these controls that eventually eliminated the disease from Banjor.

For a community that relies on the market, the ebola crisis hit the local economy hard. “Banjor was a no-mans land,” said Kamara. “No-one wanted to talk to us.” During the worst part of the crisis, the area was quarantined. Some local merchants brought food, but it was hard to get enough. Even now that the crisis is over, Banjor has a bad name and its people are stigmatised when they go to sell in the market.

Sanaka Samarasinha is the UN‘s Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Belarus, but he‘s come to Liberia to help with the response to ebola. He said the stories he heard in Banjor have inspired him to advocate strongly for an urgent response to the social and economic problems ebola has caused. “It‘s important that people understand that Ebola is not just a health crisis. Even as the world organizes an effective medical response we must not forget the human crisis that remains. We will continue to make every effort to get fast, effective support to people who are suffering. People who have lost families, lost jobs and lost the comfort they would normally get from their friends because of fear and social stigma.”