At the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), we are actively working with women’s organisations on the ground to respond to the ebola crisis.

Members of our Grants department correspond with partner networks each week who are responding to community needs by amplifying accurate information about the virus and viable prevention methods, particularly to remote communities.

 

Below are excerpts of letters from the field written by AWDF’s grantee partners in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

 

Women Solidarity, WSD-Liberia

Bettea S. Monger

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.

The most affected communities are West Point, Montserrado, Dolo’s Town, Margibi, Barkidu, Grand Kru, Lofa, Gbarpolu, Bong, Sinoe, Nimba, Kolahun and Foyah District Lofa counties.

With limited and restricted financial resources, we have created public awareness and prevention strategies for the disease through the following activities:

1. Radio awareness and prevention messages in two dialects (Kpaleh and Bassa) during the months of August and September. The radio program is presently operating in six counties including Montserrado, Margibi, Bong, Bomi, Grand Cape Mount and Grand Bassa.

2. Printing and posting of information leaflets in the communities of Soul Clinic, Paynesville and Zaysay.

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.

In many cases, a driver will take a patient from one health center to another until the person ends up dying inside the vehicle. The body could be in the vehicle for 2-3 days before the ebola response until takes it away. The death rate of women affected by ebola is quite high, particularly among pregnant women as well as children and babies.

The increasing spread of ebola is due to people traveling from community to community without taking preventive measures into consideration. At the same time, awareness and prevention messages are yet to reach the most remote communities in the country.

In an effort to rapidly respond to and combat the ebola crisis, we are in dire need of the following items:

• Printing educational posters, banners and leaflets
• Handwashing buckets
• Community to community sensitization and awareness/prevention workshops for residents, rural clinical workers (TBAs and TTMs and other midwives assigned in remote communities)
• Chlorine
• Protective personal equipment (PPE) for rural clinical workers

The markets are closed causing the price of commodities to skyrocket. Traveling from one part of Liberia to another has become extremely difficult. The epidemic is devastating the economic fabric of our country.

 

 

Community Empowerment Program (CEP), Liberia

Lucy Page

The outbreak has created an unfavorable economic situation. Communities are hugely challenged by the interruption of their cultural practices – shaking hands, hugging, bathing and grooming the dead. While none of the members of the organization have been personally affected, they have been emotionally and culturally impacted because of the number of relatives, friends and associates who are at risk because they live in “hotspot” communities.

If death occurs from the virus, they are unable to celebrate the homecoming properly because the deceased can not be touched or provided a proper burial. Women are at high risk for infection due to their dominance in the nursing profession and other caregiving careers.

Compound Number 1, a project community based in Grand Bassa County is encountering a spillover effect from Dolos Town in Margibi County. The gender equality program there is currently under quarantine. Market sellers are prohibited from trading in the quarantined neighborhoods causing additional challenges in income generation and food security.

CEP management has integrated an ebola prevention awareness campaign into one project, Department of Defense-Supported HIV/AIDS Prevention, as well as treatment and care targeting soldiers of the armed forces and surrounding communities of five (5) military barracks.

The organisation will conduct individualised and group counseling sessions, integrated with psychological counseling, and community events that target survivors of ebola. This action plan will be followed by the reactivation of economic empowerment initiatives to help rekindle the hopes of Liberians. These high-impact initiatives will help beneficiaries and communities to heal from the trauma of this experience. It is our hope to mend the existing fractured socio-cultural system so that citizens can resume a normal life.

What is still needed are the provision of sanitising materials or hygiene kits – chlorine, soap and rubber buckets with faucets. We also need funding to intensify the campaign of massive sensitisation and awareness with special attention to curbing the spread of the disease in high risk communities.

Given the accelerated pace that ebola is spreading in Liberia, we request fast-tracked assistance to provide women organisations the capacity to intensify the campaign against ebola.

 

 

New Liberian Women Organisation

Miata Kiazolu Sirleaf

My sisters, can you imagine that it was the women of West Point who led the demonstration! About 31 persons are said to have died. Our people are losing their lives on a daily basis. Much is needed in every way possible to make our people aware.

We encountered a problem in the field with a 16-year old girl giving birth. She went into a coma for three hours at a local clinic in Fandell, rural Montserrado County. We tried taking her to the hospital but, unfortunately, none of the hospitals allowed her. This took us nearly three days running from one place to another. At one point we were asked to carry her to the center where ebola patients are treated. We’ve known her quite well for many months and she was only giving birth. We refused because she does not have ebola.

At last, one private hospital, SDA Cooper Hospital, was able to treat her and she is responding well, even speaking and walking.

The country has very limited ambulance activity. As a result, dead bodies remain in the streets and homes for three to four days before the Taskforce Team can remove them.

Through the AWDF grant we have been able to do the following:

• A well-organized educational and awareness campaign to spread the word on symptoms and prevention methods
• A dramatization of how ebola is spread
• A talk show on radio in rural Montserrado County
• Distribution of essential materials such as clorox, biomedical soap, handwash buckets, stickers, fliers and posters to local marketplaces, communities, villages and towns
• A large projection frame to show how the virus works on the human body

 

We no longer live in normal conditions.

Schools are closed. The economy has declined, prices of local and international commodities have increased, hospitals are refusing people who are sick for fear of ebola. We no longer have long hours of work. Our rights are limited and the future of our children is at stake. It’s difficult to find food, women are depressed due to a loss of dignity and financial capacity to take care of their families. Women are especially affected because they tend to be the breadwinners for the family.

We need massive educational and awareness campaigns in the rural parts of the country where people lack basic information due to bad road conditions and limited electricity. Medication, food and ambulances are highly required to fight this battle against ebola.

In closing, let me give you nine (9) unsuspecting ebola sources you and your staff should pay extreme caution:

1. Door handles/access and transfer points in public places

2. Toll gate exchanges

3. Sharing writing utensils

4. Restaurants, food and drink handling

5. Fuel pumps and tanks

6. Makeup kits

7. ATM machine buttons

8. Hair and nail salons

9. Sharing cell phones and other mobile devices

 

 

Women and Children Development Association of Liberia (WOCDAL)

Malinda B. Joss

Along the Robertsfield Highway, twenty-seven (27) persons have died in the last two weeks. 13 children, 9 men, 6 women.This community is a concession area with diverse people. The situation was so alarming that President Sirleaf paid an emergency visit.

Four people have died in the community where our program manager lives. There’s not enough materials there for sanitation.

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.

Thankfully, we have a disaster management person on staff who was trained in Zimbabwe. This will help us to ensure that we handle the intervention according to the appropriate standards.

 

 

Centre for Safe Motherhood Youth & Child Outreach (CESMYCO), Sierra Leone

Laurel Bangura

 

For now, all organisations in the country are geared towards fighting ebola. It has caused a lot of mayhem in every facet of our society. Women and children are suffering. They are always the most vulnerable especially because women serve as domestic nurses to patients before the intervention of medical personnel.

In many cases when both parents die, the children are left as orphans. There are so many now in different communities across the country.

The government is presently quarantining five (5) districts in Sierra Leone: Moyamba, Bombali, Portloko, Kailahun and Kenema. The government is unable to meet all the needs of the people, especially that of women and children. We have been helping to assist pregnant and nursing mothers with food items, toiletries and soap.

On October 8th, Laygbay Lilian Amadu, Gender Advocacy Officer for Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs, provided the following estimates of ebola’s impact on women and children:

Number of children infected: 105

Number of women infected: 813

Number of children orphaned: 313

Number of children who have died: 48

Number of women who have died: 433

 

The numbers are growing with each day.

 

 

*All photos used in this article are from ebola prevention activities implemented by the Women and Children Development Association of Liberia (WOCDAL). AWDF provided USD5,000 towards this endeavor.