Schools are closed. The economy has declined. Hospitals are refusing people who are sick for fear of ebola. Women are especially affected because they tend to be the breadwinners for the family.

We no longer have long hours of work. Our rights are limited and the future of our children is at stake.

-Miata Kiazolu Sirleaf

New Liberian Women Organisation

On the 18^th of September 2014, the UN declared ebola as a threat to international peace and security and swiftly formed the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER). Currently, there are more than 13,500 cases globally and the West African countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone have been hit the hardest. UNICEF estimates that 5 million children have been affected by the outbreak and 4,000 orphaned by the virus.

The disease has killed nearly 5,000 people and the World Health Organization figures show that 12 new cases are reported in Sierra Leone every day.

The daily life of women, in particular, has been greatly impacted by the virus since women most often are the primary caregivers of family members, especially those who fall sick. This puts women at significant risk should they come into contact with the bodily fluids of the infected, including blood, sweat, feces or vomit.

The hazards are evident in Liberia where more than 75% of the ebola death toll has been women.

 

Implications of the disease on women’s lives

The government ministries don’t have the requisite training to prevent the spread. Cultural and traditional norms are negatively competing with the interventions of NGOs and medical team workers. There is a huge need for more funds to enable us to do the work.

-Malinda B. Joss

Women and Children Development Association of Liberia (WOCDAL)

 

As providers of healthcare in their communities, women have a greater likelihood of contracting the disease since they are often employed as nurses or patient care technicians. Furthermore, women are the ones who check on family members who have been quarantined. If family members are not well informed about the modes of ebola transmission or the welfare of infected kin, panic and worry can become additional traumas affecting women caregivers.

The spread of the virus has interrupted the daily life of cultural communities in West Africa – particularly spaces where women are critical decision-makers – such as markets (where crowds and market sellers are being stigmatized), food and water gathering practices for families (women are going further away from home centers to locate adequate and cost-effective supplies) and corpse bathing rituals (important socio-cultural traditions between the living and deceased).

On this point, AWDF’s CEO Theo Sowa adds, “Women are the ones who have primary responsibility in most of our communities for family and family responses. If we look at the HIV/AIDS crisis, if it hadn’t been for African women, our continent probably wouldn’t have survived. It was women who were the caregivers, women who worked to help change behaviors, women who took care of treatment. Women have trusted relationships with their families and communities. They can change the way people think about ebola and help others to really understand the nature of the disease. If we want to crack any problem on our continent, women have to be at the heart of the response.”

The disease has not only impacted everyday life but also the convening of organisations in West Africa and even other parts of the continent. The African Media Leaders Forum, which enables networking and discussion of new opportunities in multimedia, was postponed because many participants come from West African countries and, therefore, would encounter difficulties acquiring visas to South Africa for the forum. Similarly, the African Grantmakers Network [AGN], chaired by Theo Sowa, has postponed the 3^rd annual General Assembly due to Ghana’s government moratorium on all international conferences.

It is expected that the outbreak could take more than six months to control.

 

 

AWDF activates ebola prevention and eradication

One of the volunteers in our office has nearly lost her entire family to ebola. They were among the twenty-five (25) who succumbed to the virus on 20th August in the Kolahun district of Masabolahun.

The disease has spread to all 15 counties. It is no longer the business of the Liberian government. The virus is covering the entire country.

–Bettea S. Monger

Women Solidarity, Liberia

 

In response to the epidemic, AWDF has ensured measures to protect employees and to gain a greater insight into the effects of ebola on grantee organisations. Subsequently, learning sessions with health professionals have been provided to thoroughly educate all staff about prevention strategies within and outside the workplace. Precautions have also been implemented in the event of an ebola outbreak in Ghana.

Since early August, AWDF has supported six (6) grantee organisations in Liberia and Sierra Leone, with a total amount of US30,000, to intensify educational activities and resources that help prevent the spread of the disease and increase community knowledge about the outbreak. The Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Market Fund for Women (SMFW) has been granted USD10,000 to facilitate large-scale, mass awareness campaigns by market women in seven (7) markets across the country. The organisation is working with a coalition of government, NGO and CSO partners to accurately inform citizens about the disease, symptoms and prevention methods. SMFW improves the infrastructure of markets in Liberia by connecting women traders to a wealth of information and resources including assistance with credit, healthcare, childcare centres, storage areas, sanitary facilities and literacy development.

Additionally, the New Liberian Women Organisation/Skills Training Centre (NLWO) has been awarded USD5,000 to undertake a series of educational activities on the outbreak within selected communities in Careysburg City, Bentol City, Yeantown and Cruzerville. NWLO will use the community-valued methodologies of music and dance to translate ebola prevention messages to residents. The organization works to develop the capacity of unemployed, young women and refugee women in specific skills-based training and advocacy.

In Sierra Leone, the Foundation for Integrated Development (FID) was granted USD5,000 to generate the “Kick Ebola Out of Makpele and Soro-Gbema” campaign as a supplement to the government’s efforts to prevent the spread of the disease in the Pujehun District. The campaign will build critical awareness of the epidemic in targeted sessions with 120 town chiefs and provide sanitation kits to selected communities in two chiefdoms. FID was set up in southern Sierra Leone in 2004 to support women with small scale agricultural trading and other income generation projects.

 

A Labor of Love

Communities are hugely challenged by the interruption of their cultural practices – shaking hands, hugging, bathing and grooming the dead. If death occurs from the virus, they are unable to celebrate the homecoming properly because the deceased cannot be touched or provided a proper burial.

It is our hope to mend the fractured socio-cultural system so that citizens can resume a normal life.

-Lucy Page

Community Empowerment Program, Liberia

 

The effects of the outbreak are felt on an intimate level in Moiyatta Banya’s story, “A Phone Call, a Journal and a Bar of Soap.” The reality of the disease in Sierra Leone, a country in persistent recovery, has been devastating. Moiyatta’s organisation, the Girls Empowerment Summit Sierra Leone, educates and builds the capacity of young women by providing them with “knowledge, skills, courage, and confidence to become fulfilled and successful young women.” In the article, Banya narrates how the loss of family members, and particularly breadwinners, has been detrimental to the sustainability of families. Schools have been shut down in order to prevent the virus from spreading. However, this measure disrupts the education of girls and increases their vulnerability through this indeterminate suspension of school.

Since the presence of ebola has now been documented in a few cases outside West Africa, there is greater urgency for the disease’s containment and eradication. Liberia’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, Axel Addy, alluded that human kindness, which has led to the spread of the disease, is the very trait that could aid its elimination. Similarly, Wanja Maina, a Kenyan journalist and participant in AWDF’s African Women Writers Residency on Creative Non-fiction, muses on the transmission of the virus: “Ebola is spread through love, really. It is very African to take care of a sick relative. Therefore, we need a global community to show love to our West African friends during these trying times.”

Together, we can support women organisations to provide comprehensive and sustainable community responses to the disease. This is one way forward towards counteracting the devastating effects of ebola.

 

By: Sionne Neely & Shakira Chambas