{"id":7513,"date":"2016-04-10T09:33:12","date_gmt":"2016-04-10T09:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/africlub.net\/awdf\/?p=7513"},"modified":"2016-04-10T09:33:12","modified_gmt":"2016-04-10T09:33:12","slug":"social-stigma-compounds-desperate-poverty-of-guineas-ebola-survivors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awdf.org\/OldSite\/social-stigma-compounds-desperate-poverty-of-guineas-ebola-survivors\/","title":{"rendered":"Social stigma compounds desperate poverty of Guinea’s Ebola survivors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billie Mcternan, journalist and AWDF writer traveled to Guinea to interview and visit grantee organizations given Ebola grants.<\/p>\n

This article was published in The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n

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A handwashing station in Fermessadou bears a label urging villagers to protect against Ebola. The village is close to Kissidougou, the epicentre of Guinea\u2019s Ebola outbreak. Photograph: Ruth McDowall\/AWDF<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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W<\/span><\/span>ith dusk descending, Fanta Cond\u00e9 and Mariam Tour\u00e9 arrive in the village of Fermessadou, in southern Guinea.<\/p>\n

They are greeted by about 50 people, including the village chief, and presented with gifts of kola nuts, bananas and papayas in thanks for the work they did for the community during the Ebola crisis.<\/p>\n

Cond\u00e9 is the secretary general of Cofrasad, a co-operative of 45 women\u2019s groups working in agricultural production, while Tour\u00e9 runs another women\u2019s co-operative, Badembere.<\/p>\n

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\"Fanta<\/picture><\/div>
Fanta Cond\u00e9, from the women\u2019s co-operative Cofrasad. Photograph: Ruth McDowall\/AWDF<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Ebola spread in the forest region, Cond\u00e9, Tour\u00e9 and their colleagues went out into communities to provide people with hygiene supplies funded by a grant from theAfrican Women\u2019s Development Fund<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very grateful for all that you have done for us,\u201d says the chief. \u201cBut things are not yet back to how they were before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many left during the Ebola crisis, deeming the village \u2013 which lies about nine miles from Kissidougou town \u2013 uncomfortably close to the epicentre of the virus outbreak. Two years later, some are still to return.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven we were scared to come here at first,\u201d says Tour\u00e9, out of earshot of the community.<\/p>\n

Local women\u2019s groups played a crucial part in supporting people in the region during the outbreak. From the markets to the mosques, from morning to evening, the groups went door to door and spoke on the radio, passing on information about Ebola and distributing handwashing kits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are still many problems,\u201d says Cond\u00e9. \u201cThree of our members were victims.\u201d<\/p>\n

A major problem for the groups is providing ongoing support to women who contracted Ebola, or to women who looked after people who were infected.<\/p>\n

Odette Kamano, 40, lives in Gu\u00e9ck\u00e9dou, and has received small donations from Cofrasad. She lost several family members to Ebola. After caring for her mother- and sister-in-law, she too was diagnosed with the virus.<\/p>\n

She was in the Ebola treatment unit for two months. She returned home to 14 children, ranging in age from nine to 15. These included her own children and those her mother-in-law had taken in. She also had to take care of her husband who, after a serious injury, is unable to work.<\/p>\n