Tag: Sierra Leone

By Fatou Wurie

Read the original piece on Huffington Post here

THE BACKGROUND YOU ARE MOST AWARE OF – 11 YEARS OF WAR IN SIERRA LEONE:
Birth. I choose to not tell my protected friends that I was born in a small house in a small village nestled in the small corners of Africa. I cannot tell them that we did not have running water, or that my grandfather died in a small colorless room–he was a man who came from a life of rags to one of riches and back to rags. Privacy is important to my family. We do not talk about fragmented family members who still reside in a time where proliferated guns, machetes and knives were central to a landscape they know as home. We are private. My friends, they cannot understand that the black child without arms in media mediated images is a by-product of a war that demanded other black children become killers. War, it conjures images of men with weapons, of death, of blood, of the decapitation of family structures. It conjures the infinite nature of the human spirit.

I see black corpses, Bosnian corpses, Jewish corpses, Palestinian corpses, Syrian Corpses, corpses from the DRC–corpses that have lived in the small house I was born. I smell tears; they are the only signifiers and tellers of endured pain, of survival. When I hear phrases like the private life of war a sad smile forces my lips into movement. War is never private; it may be pocketed and isolated but collectively we all mourn and grieve. Private is an illusion maintained by the powerful. Fools, we even tell those who return from battle that they must uphold the fabric of illusion. That their grief can only spill within, and if they cry, we will collect their tears and hide them.

Hide

Hide

Hide hidden, even if our visibly invisible limbs are reminders that we were once at war. The little colorless house I was born in is a battlefield on its own. It has birthed, screamed and lost. It has endured rape, trauma, laughter, community, strength, and mental breakdowns. It has housed dreams and bears witness to the deaths of the owners of those dreams. There is no negotiating war. It is alive in the body; it seeps into our collective consciousness even when we try to forget.

THE SILENT WAR YOU ARE NOT HEARING ENOUGH ABOUT:

We are shouting between silences, covering what continues to spill through muffled cries, here is the present reality – much too many women and young girls are been raped in Sierra Leone. Too often, too fast, too much. Action only comes from momentary outrage, too often too fast too much. In the last 2 months alone based on social media news buzz with images that serve as evidence, over 10 young girls nation-wide have been raped, maimed and some left dead.

Three years ago on an ‘End Fistual Campaign’ I traveled to the Southern Province of Sierra Leone and met an 11 year old girl who suffered from Fistula. She was quiet, almost peaceful as she stood erect looking afar. Her eyes were vacant. She had been raped since age 9, which is how she came to suffer from Fistula.

Photography Credit: Fatou Wurie | 11 year old who suffered from traumatic fistula due to rape since age 9

Hannah Bockarie at 19 years of age was found sprawled, half naked on Freetown’s popular beach, Lumley. Raped, beaten and dead. Her death sparked outrage among many Sierra Leoneans, the indignation of her rape and death, a sharp reminder that far too many young girls and women experience sexual violence every day in our small nation. Often their stories go unnoticed. Hannah’s death forced us to remember the brutality at which women’s bodies were being attacked without impunity. Yet, a good number of people also believed that Hannah deserved what happened to her because she was a commercial sex worker, citing that “they were not Hannah” in opposition to the rally cry for her death, ” we are all Hannah!” which aimed to reinforce that Rape is not about sex, it is about Power.

Photography Credit: Tolu J. Bade/UNICEF Sierra Leone | Hanna Bockarie, rape victim’s funeral where she was found dead

There is a war launched on the bodies of Sierra Leonean women.

World, know this today.

The stories about the decapitation of women’s bodies are spilling, war is never private.

Fatou Wurie is a health communications and policy advocacy activist, writer and photographer. Her work has been featured on the Huffington Post, Okay Africa, Amnesty International Blog and the Standard Times- a leading local newspaper discussing women’s health, maternal and newborn health, sexuality and politics. Her passion lies in curating spaces and places through community designed projects, technology, and advocacy policy to drive improved social services for marginalized communities – especially women. She is the founder of The Survivor Dream Project – a community led project that creates sustainable change in the lives of vulnerable populations across Sierra Leone. Fatou participated in AWDF’s 2015 African Women Writers Workshop. You can follow her writing at her blog.

Read published article here: on Qz.com

BY Amba Mpoke-Bigg

Nurse Mariatu Fofana says she should have known better than to touch and hug her father as he lay dying at his home near the capital of Sierra Leone, but she has paid an unbearable price for her error.

This article was originally published on The Journalist. Read the original article here.

Ebola is an infectious and generally fatal disease. It’s marked by fever and severe internal bleeding, spread through contact with infected body fluids. The countries of Sierra Leone and Guinea on Africa’s West Coast have been especially hard hit with about 4 000 people dying since the start of the outbreak a couple of years ago. The writer participated in the recent Writing for Social Change Workshop in Kampala – an annual event of The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) in collaboration with FEMRITE, the Uganda Women Writers Association.

Five years ago I was sexually assaulted and I call myself a survivor. I live in a country where this word survivor is thrown around like confetti. Just another term for global consumption. A euphemism for scars, underneath which lurks the pain of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak that hit Sierra Leone.

There is a silver lining to the horrific experience. Not everyone died. But now we have to face up to a reality that survivors are often re-victimised. People lack a rational explanation. Lack a sense of agency to deal with the trauma. So their responses become irrational, and often cruel.

As a survivor of trauma I know this all too well. For those, especially the women, who have survived Ebola the real battle has just begun. Now they have to pick up the pieces of their lives.

Mamusu Mansaray, a 30-year-old, is animated. We sit across from one another. She bounces around a bit in her chair, attempting to make herself more comfortable. She recalls her experience, talking repeatedly about the fear.

“When I began to fall sick I got scared to call 117 (emergency service). We heard that those who were taken away by Ebola ambulances didn’t return. And when I finally found myself in an ambulance and taken to a treatment centre I was so, so scared that I would die in the ambulance like everyone else. I was sure I was going to die, laying there in the ambulance with other people who were sick too.”

Fear Paralyses

Fear often paralyses one during a crisis. This is what I recall after my own assault. Fear nested in every crevice of my body. Fear paralysing the physical pain yet amplifying the experience enough for it to be forever etched in my memory. I remember the feeling of becoming just another statistic. Then feeling calm in fleeting moments. But soon the tears would appear of their own accord. But for the most part, I remember feeling incredibly scared. The journey out of physical pain was a long and arduous one, with symptoms that till this day appear unexpectedly. The road towards emotional recovery? Well, it will take a lifetime. Perhaps.

Rabiatu Kalokoh is 23 years old. She contracted Ebola through a pastor’s anointing oil while treating a pregnant girl that was ill in her community. She remembers:

“One morning in the bathroom I started bleeding heavily down there. I knew it wasn’t my period because it wasn’t the time. I called for my grandmother who got angry and asked me what I had done to myself. I told her nothing, I hadn’t done anything but she was really angry at me.”

Women & Girls Most Vulnerable

In the role as primary care-givers culturally and socially, women and girls are most vulnerable during health epidemics. In Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone women have also been the least supported as effective social mobilisers, as health workers, as community leaders and now as survivors.

During the Ebola outbreak heroic acts surpassed gender, tribe, race and nationality. It has been a case of humanity acting for humanity. Yet, women and girls remain the bearers of the burden. Bone-deep existing social issues like high illiteracy rates, frail health care systems and gendered economic disparities were thrown into sharp relief due to Ebola. Adequate social, economic and political, gender-targeted responses to these social fractures have been slow. It has made ‘surviving’ the disease only half of the battle for many women who have contracted Ebola.

Women in Sierra Leone were disproportionately affected by Ebola because of gendered roles within our society. We are the primary custodians of care for our families and communities. In the health care system women make up the majority, acting as nurses and maternal and child health aids (MCH) in community clinics and larger hospitals.

Flawed Health Care

Nurse Adiatu Pujeh’s story is a testament to effects of a health care system that delayed providing adequate Infection Prevention Control (IPC) training and equipment to health care personnel.

Adiatu walks with a limp and a spark in her eyes. Meeting her for the first time you know that she is one who beats the odds every time. She and four of her colleagues, all female nurses, contracted Ebola in November 2014. She is the only one who survived.

“Three days after I was discharged and came out alive, I went back to work. I didn’t want anyone else to suffer the way I had suffered. I went back to work. Look, I’ve survived a car accident and have a plate in my arm and I have survived Ebola. God clearly doesn’t want me yet! So, even though it has been very hard, I am still here and will continue to do what I can to save lives”.

As survivors of trauma we gravitate towards others. Extending understanding and empathy becomes part of who we have become. I choose to play my part in assisting women and young girls who have survived Ebola through art and advocacy with the hope that something good, something positive could grow. Reaping a positive harvest from an experience that dances with death.

Survivors & Shame

After my own assault I was surrounded by resources, colleagues and access to counseling that initiated the process of healing. I was completing my studies at university. In short I had many more privileges and access than many women in Sierra Leone will ever have. Even then, self-inflicted shame prevailed in social structures that either boxed me into a rape statistic or demanded I prove an unassailable narrative. But the experience to this day remains fragmented, culturally damaging and personally dehumanising.

So much has been asked of Ebola survivors. To share their stories, to utilise their experiences for social good, to speak when requested to speak, to become caricatures of the trauma or not speak about it at all. The women and young girls in our programme, The Survivor Dream Project, are Ebola survivors who have relayed feeling isolated and betrayed by people close to them. Their most intimate experiences are made public for intake without tangible, sustainable social support.

Adiatu the nurse still feels stigmatised:

“I filmed my story when I just came out of the treatment centre and after that, I could not go to the market for months. Every time I go to the market they call me the Ebola woman. Even at work, where I caught the virus it’s taken a while. I still get the looks”.

As a survivor of another type of traumatic event these realities resonate with a deep understanding that the Ebola Survivors of Sierra Leone face heightened social structural barriers; access to quality health care, quality education, safe space for dialogue and sustained economic support.

Survivor Dream Project

This is how The Survivor Dream Project came to be. It is our way of exposing the hidden reality of ‘surviving’ which is the ability to pick up the pieces of life when all is destroyed. It is about designing a localised programme to assist in building capacity for women and girls who have survived Ebola to become economically empowered. To address the lack of access to quality health care services and to cultivate a safe space for heart-to-heart skin-to-skin discussions. It is about supporting women and young girls garner strength to push through stigma and not be defined by Ebola, to not remain a statistic. Most importantly, to remind our policy makers and the world that we still fail our women, we still fail to cultivate social systems conducive to gender based right to dignity, social and economic growth and empowerment.

The Survivor Dream Project is about nourishing the dreams of our women in the programme. Five years from now, where will the 20 women in the project be? What type of positive change would have occurred? In what part of their bodies and psyche will this trauma reside? These questions for any survivor are difficult to conceptualise without a safe space and system dedicated to nurturing them, so that it becomes possible to envision a future where they did not only survive, but bloomed.

Fatou Wurie is a health communications and policy advocacy activist, writer and photographer. Her work has been featured on the Huffington Post, Okay Africa, Amnesty International Blog and the Standard Times- a leading local newspaper discussing women’s health, maternal and newborn health, sexuality and politics. Her passion lies in curating spaces and places through community designed projects, technology, and advocacy policy to drive improved social services for marginalized communities – especially women. She is the founder of The Survivor Dream Project – a community led project that creates sustainable change in the lives of vulnerable populations across Sierra Leone. Fatou participated in AWDF’s 2015 African Women Writers Workshop. You can follow her writing at her blog.

After more than a year of unimaginable suffering, West Africa looks cautiously ahead to the end of the most devastating outbreak of the Ebola virus the world has ever known. Yet the road for the three worst affected countries is still one of tough challenges.

Whilst Liberia is celebrating a second round of being declared Ebola-free, the announcement of new cases in Sierra Leone this week is seen as a real setback to national efforts to get rid of the disease. The new outbreaks, in the northern part of the country have led to a fresh round of enforced quarantines for thousands of people.

The first case of Ebola broke out in Guinea in December 2013, but the disease went undetected for four months until it crossed the border into neighbouring Sierra Leone, reaching its peak in August 2014. To date Ebola has claimed over 11,200 lives in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Thousands of others died of other causes due to the shutdown of emergency and regular health care services as hospitals closed their doors in the wake of the epidemic.

At AWDF, our Ebola relief support for 52 women’s organizations in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, underscores our concern for women who play the role of frontline responders in emergency situations on our continent. Within weeks of the outbreak we disbursed $450,000 to these women’s groups in the three countries.

Given the brutal impact on their already battered economies and the acute shortage of healthcare professionals, getting the countries completely Ebola-free and restoring what remains of virtually non-existent healthcare infrastructure will require the efforts of regional and national governments, individuals and the international community.

Early evidence from this outbreak has shown that women were disproportionately affected. Women’s livelihoods, security and lives came under direct assault as the epidemic waged its war.

For the next two weeks, we would like to salute the courage of the healthcare professionals, doctors, workers and ordinary everyday citizens who survived the unimaginable and through whose efforts the halt in the epidemic’s advance was made possible.

Through stories, features, reports and photographs we will tell the story of the impact of Ebola on women over the past year. Women who have demonstrated courage, resilience and the ability to survive the outbreak of one of the deadliest viruses on earth.

Click here for featured stories.

[tp lang=”en” not_in=”fr” ]This article was originally posted on allAfrica.com

By Nafi Chinery

The number of new Ebola cases in January 2015 dropped to the lowest weekly level since June 2014.

As a result, the World Health Organization recently said they are shifting their focus to not only ending the outbreak but to rebuilding the three countries that have been hardest hit: Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

Up to this point in the Ebola response, men have been leading the directives and making most of the high-level decisions.

The national Ebola task force, which has now been replaced by the incidence management systems constituted by the government of Liberia, for example, is led by female President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, but 90% of the members are men. Other task forces like the Bomi county and joint task force (JFT) in Liberia are also male-dominated.

The lack of women tapped as leaders during the Ebola crisis has been an unfortunate oversight. Male leaders tend to have fewer ties to communities and traditional roles, such as caring for the sick and carrying out burial functions, than do women.

Further, in community after community, it is local women who have been the primary people working on the Ebola defense plan.They have been involved in Ebola education and have provided psycho-social support to communities who have been traumatized.

They have been at the frontlines distributing soap, watering cans, and information on health care facilities to help meet people’s most basic needs. Daily, they offer an invaluable service by providing healthcare tips in the local languages that foreign staff of international organisations may not know.

Women have been working at the national level, too. Take the women of Sierra Leone, led by the 50/50 group and organizations like the River Women’s Peace Network, which established a Women’s Response to Ebola Campaign to bring women’s skills and knowledge to bear in fighting Ebola.

Volunteering at the ministry of health and sanitation’s toll free call Centre, the group’s work has reportedly increased community enquiries relating to accessing care services, accurate information about Ebola, and the care and custody of orphans.

The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), where I work, has long recognized the skills and leadership capacity of women. To date, AWDF has awarded grants of over US$500,000 to 42 women’s organisations in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone to address Ebola. The idea is to strengthen women’s capacity to respond to the Ebola crisis in hard to reach communities.

This directly resulted in fewer market women being affected by the virus and increased the number of communities and women’s groups who spread their knowledge on Ebola to other rural communities and family members.

In both Liberia and Sierra Leone, whenever there has been an increase in women’s involvement at the higher levels of leadership, it has produced faster and sustained results.

For example, in Liberia, both ActionAid Liberia (AAL) and the Angie Brooks Centre ensured that women and young people’s perspective, involvement and needs were factored into the national Ebola response plans.

They trained and involved women at all levels of activities including using local women to translate Ebola awareness messages in local languages in rural areas. Korto Williams, AAL Country Director, visited the AWDF offices on 6thFebruary 2015 to update staff on the Ebola situation in Liberia.

During her presentation she said, “Ebola would have ended earlier if women were involved at the early stages of the national response plan”. Her organisation has reached 360,000 people in 278 communities across 6 counties so far, mostly women and children. As the Ebola crisis shifts to rebuilding communities, we cannot afford to keep women out of decision-making roles any longer.

We need women’s knowledge and input. Women, especially rural women, are the custodians of culture and tradition and if we want to see a change in culture, tradition and lifestyles of the people in affected communities then women are best suited to lead the way. Their skills in community social mobilization are crucial and they often have the best ties to the communities in the first place.

Now is the time to invite more of the women AWDF and others work with to the highest levels of decision-making. While it may take more effort to find knowledgeable and read-to-lead women in some regions, they exist in every community and country and their breadth and depth of knowledge are valuable.

For real change to take place in the fight against Ebola, women must be represented in significant numbers at every level of decision-making, planning, monitoring and implementation.

Nafi Chinery is the Capacity Building Programme Specialist at The African Women’s Development Fund and an alumni of the Aspen Institute’s New Voices Fellowship.[/tp]

[tp lang=”fr” not_in=”en” ]Cet article a été posté sur allAfrica.com

Par Nafi Chinery

Le nombre de nouveaux cas d’Ebola en Janvier 2015 a chuté au niveau hebdomadaire le plus bas depuis Juin 2014.

Par conséquent, l’Organisation mondiale de la Santé a récemment déclaré qu’elle consacre son attention non seulement à endiguer l’épidémie, mais aussi à la reconstruction des trois pays qui ont été les plus durement touchés: la Guinée, le Libéria et la Sierra Leone.

Jusqu’à présent pour répondre à Ebola, les hommes ont été leader des directives et pris la plupart des décisions à un haut niveau.

Le national Ebola task force par exemple, qui a maintenant été remplacé par des systèmes de gestion des incidents constitués par le gouvernement du Libéria, est dirigé par la présidente Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, mais 90% des membres sont des hommes. D’autres groupes de travail comme la Force opérationnelle interarmées de Bomi (JFT) au Libéria sont également dominés par les hommes.

Le manque de femmes impliquées en tant que leader lors de l’épidémie d’Ébola a été un oubli regrettable. Les dirigeants masculins ont tendance à avoir moins de liens avec les collectivités et les rôles traditionnels, tels que les soins aux malades et la réalisation de sépultures, que les femmes.

En outre, dans bon nombre de communautés, ce sont les femmes de la localité qui ont été les premières personnes a travailler au plan de la défense contre le virus Ebola. Elles ont été impliquées dans l’éducation sur Ebola et ont fourni un soutien psychosocial aux communautés qui ont été traumatisées.

Elles ont été en première ligne pour la distribution de savon, d’arrosoirs et pour fournir des informations sur les établissements de soins de santé afin de répondre à la plupart des besoins fondamentaux des populations. Quotidiennement, elles rendent un service inestimable en fournissant des conseils de soins de santé dans les langues locales que le personnel étranger des organisations internationales ne peut pas savoir.

Les femmes ont travaillé au niveau national, aussi. Prenez les femmes de Sierra Leone, menées par le groupe 50/50 et les organisations comme le Réseau pour la paix des femmes du fleuve, qui a établi la La réponse des femmes à la Campagne Ebola afin d’apporter les compétences et les connaissances de ces femmes dans la lutte contre le virus Ebola.

Faisant du bénévolat pour le ministère de la santé et de l’assainissement au Centre d’appel gratuit , le travail du groupe aurait augmenté le nombre d’enquêtes communautaires relatives à l’accès aux services de soins, des informations précises sur le virus Ebola, le soin et la garde des orphelins.

Le Fonds africain de développement de la femme (AWDF), où je travaille, a depuis longtemps reconnu les compétences et les capacités de leadership des femmes. À ce jour, AWDF a accordé des subventions de plus de US $ 500 000 à 42 organisations de femmes au Libéria, en Guinée et en Sierra Leone pour répondre à Ebola. L’idée est de renforcer la capacité des femmes pour répondre à la crise d’Ébola afin d’atteindre abondamment les communautés.

L’une des 42 organisations est le Sirleaf Market Women’s Fund (SMWF) au Libéria. Cette organisation a été en mesure de travailler avec 15 marchés qui, combinés, représentent environ 9.000 vendeuses de marché et plus de 12.000 utilisateurs quotidiens du marché. SMWF leur a fourni des équipements de lavage des mains et des campagnes d’information sur le virus Ebola.

Cela a directement entraîné une baisse du nombre de femmes sur le marché affectées par le virus et a augmenté le nombre de communautés et de groupes de femmes qui répandent leurs connaissances sur le virus Ebola à d’autres communautés rurales et aux membres de la famille.

Au Libéria et en Sierra Leone, chaque fois qu’il y a eu une augmentation de la participation des femmes aux plus hauts niveaux de leadership, cela a entraîné des résultats plus rapides et soutenus.

Par exemple, au Libéria, ActionAid Liberia (AAL) et le Angie Brooks Centre ont tout deux veillé à ce que les perspective, la participation et les besoins des femmes et des jeunes aient été pris en compte dans les plans nationaux d’intervention d’Ebola.

Ils ont formé et impliqué les femmes à tous les niveaux d’activités, y compris les femmes de la localité pour traduire les messages de sensibilisation à Ebola en langues locales dans les zones rurales. Korto Williams, Directeur d’AAL Country, a visité les bureaux d’AWDF le 6 février 2015 pour informer le personnel sur la situation d’Ebola au Libéria.

Au cours de sa présentation, elle a déclaré “qu’Ebola aurait été éradiqué plus tôt si les femmes avaient été impliquées dans les premières étapes du plan de réponse national”. Son organisation a atteint 360 000 personnes dans 278 communautés à travers 6 comtés jusqu’à présent, la plupart des femmes et des enfants. Comme la crise Ébola se transforme en reconstruction des communautés, nous ne pouvons pas nous permettre de garder les femmes hors des rôles décisionnels plus longtemps.

Nous avons besoin des connaissances et de l’implication des femmes. Elles sont, en particulier les femmes rurales, les gardiennes de la culture et de la tradition, et si nous voulons voir un changement dans la culture, la tradition et les modes de vie des gens dans les communautés touchées alors les femmes sont les mieux à même de montrer la voie. Leurs compétences en matière de mobilisation sociale sont essentielles et elles sont souvent les meilleurs liens avec les communautés, en premier lieu.

Il est maintenant temps d’inviter plus de femmes d’AWDF et d’autres travaillant aux plus hauts niveaux de prise de décision. Bien que cela puisse demander plus d’efforts pour trouver des femmes ayant les compétence et prête à diriger dans certaines régions, elles existent dans chaque communauté et l’ampleur et la profondeur de leurs connaissances est précieuse.

Pour qu’un réel changement ait lieu dans la lutte contre le virus Ebola, les femmes doivent être représentées en grand nombre à tous les niveaux de la prise de décisions, la planification, le suivi et la mise en œuvre.

Nafi Chinery est spécialiste du programme de renforcement des capacités au Fonds de développement des femmes africaines et ancienne élève d’Aspen Institute’s New Voices Fellowship.[/tp]

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

[tp lang=”en” not_in=”fr”]A Dispatch from the Girls of Sierra Leone about the impact of the 3-day-Ebola Lockdown

I always look forward to hearing from my girls, because they brighten my day. When I noticed the +232 area code, I answered because I knew the caller was a loved-one. Ever since the Ebola epidemic, not one +232 number has gone unanswered.

The phone rang and I heard Isatu’s cheery voice, she was flashing me, a regular practice that Sierra Leonean’s use to alert their loves one to call them back.

“Aunty Moiyattu, call me back—I don’t have any credits.”

Since this was a normal occurrence between us. I called her back in haste. She told me that it was the second day of the Ebola lockdown that Sierra Leone’s government had imposed on the country. When I asked her how she was doing, she expressed that all was well, and that she was in high spirits. This made me smile as I wondered when next I would see her.

Every year, my organization which is focuses on girls empowerment work in Sierra Leone, hosts an annual summit that brings 50 Sierra Leonean girls aged 12-16 from various backgrounds together for a two-day Summit, providing them with various workshops to help enhance their sense of self, to build relationships with peers, and to train young Sierra Leonean women mentors. Throughout the year, the girls meet in small cohorts and participate in community development projects.

My team and I have been doing this since 2012, but for the first time, things are uncertain. Our Sierra Leone-based programming has been placed on hold because of the Ebola outbreak and we have no idea what the next steps for the girls or the organization would be in the next few months.

During our chat, I asked Isatu how the lock down was going.

“The Ebola people dem cam tiday,” she explained.

The Ebola Ose-to-Ose (house-to-house) response team that had been conducting sensitizations during the three-day lock down in Sierra Leone. When they came to her house, she reported, the team had instructed her family to wash their hands, avoid bodily and skin-to-skin contact, and left them with a bar of soap.

I smiled at the innocence of her explanation and asked her if she had found the information helpful. She responded that indeed, it was good to hear it, but that she had also heard the same information from our country coordinator.

I wondered how a bar of soap would help Isatu stay stimulated educationally so that she wouldn’t fall behind on her classes? How would a bar of soap help prevent Ebola from affecting Isatu’s family and many other families? At that moment I wished that the bar of soap could wash away every terrible memory of this Ebola epidemic. I wished the bar of soap could bring back the 500 plus lives that have been lost, I wish the bar of soap can bring the girls back together to see each other, I wish the bar of soap would allow GESSL to happen this year, but it won’t. It would serve its purpose of a few hand wash cycles.

I worry for her, my GESSL girls, and other Sierra Leonean girls, because I don’t see an end to this epidemic. Since the beginning of the Ebola epidemic, a few of our girls have lost their parents from unknown causes. Furthermore, the government has banned gatherings in the country. Therefore, the regular meetings we held with them had been put on hold for three months and counting.

Knowing that the girls relied on our support and on each other for support, our staff devised a plan to call them every two weeks to ensure that everyone was doing well and to take note of any emerging needs with which we could assist.

It was during these calls that they revealed some of their fears and losses, and it was in this way that we found out about deaths in their families. During these calls, the girls divulged that they were anxious to reunite and how much they missed seeing each other at meetings, and how much they longed to return to school.

Ebola impacts girls on many levels; it insinuates fears and uncertainties and takes away their lifelines, including critical programs such as GESSL—their contact with other girls and their mentors. This is what Ebola does to such critical work; it dismantles meaningful projects, dilutes efforts and pushes girls further away from achieving their greatest potential. Our meaningful work has come to a standstill.

On our call, she tells me she is writing in her journal everyday to different people including me about her experience during the lock down. The most exciting thing Isatu had to tell me was that she came third in her class and was moving on to Senior Secondary Two (SS2). I was so proud of her and asked her what soft drink she would want when we celebrate her success. She chuckled and responded that “anytin normor” (anything). I wondered when school would re-open for her to go back and continue exceling in her studies.

In Sierra Leone, school usually resumes by September. Unfortunately, with the uncontrollable spread of Ebola, they have been closed down indefinitely under government instruction. Any stretch of time that the girls spend out of school is detrimental to their learning and social functioning. This severely impacts children in the country, especially girls who are already at a disadvantage when it comes to secondary education. According to a report by the UNICEF “though attendance rates for boys and girls are almost equal at the primary level, there is a high dropout rate for girls and their enrolment in secondary education is low with net a secondary school attendance rate of only 19 per cent”, most girls drop out of school during secondary school and the Ebola epidemic could make this much worse. The fact that the girls have to stay at home can expose them to behaviors. Though there are some efforts within the country by local NGOs to help children stay stimulated via radio programming, this is the best that can be done. But it is still not enough.

As we were about to say our goodbyes, Isatu asked me,

“Aunty Moiyattu, is the summit going to happen this year? Will I see you this year December?”

Every year, my answer has been the same,

“Yes, of course my dear—ah dey live en direct,”

I usually tell them that I will be there. This year is different and it pains me. My voice shook in response. I realized that the answer I was about to give her was one more entry onto her list of uncertainties in the midst of Ebola. In that moment I wasn’t a Co-Founder of an organization, I was her sister.

“I am not sure yet, we will let you all know when the next GESSL summit will be.”

I could hear her sadness on the other end of the line.

“Noooooo! Aye booooo!”

At that moment there was nothing I could say to pacify her; it was impossible to assure her that Ebola would come to an end, or that life would resume as usual. I was at a loss for words. That was one of the hardest conversations I have had this year.

In the meantime, we continue to encourage the girls to write about their experiences in journals not only to stimulate their minds, but also as a means of therapy. We hope for them to be able to share their stories in a communal manner some day. We encourage them to call each other, and, we work on ways to support their families. As I ended the call with, I assured her that I would continue to pray and asked her to do the same. I assured her that, one day hopefully soon, we will have another summit, where she will play a key role. I can only hope that all they have learnt in these two years will keep them connected and keep them going through these hard times. When I hung up the phone, I realized that Isatu’s story and the story of many Sierra Leonean girls, girls in Kailahun, Kambia, Kono, might go untold in the midst of such an epidemic.

Bio

Moiyattu is a Feminist, Writer and Digital Mover and Shaker. She currently teaches Women Studies courses at Temple University and does consulting work for social enterprises in West Africa. She was a participant at AWDF & FEMRITE’s first writers workshop held in July 2014. Follow her on Twitter @Wcaworld or read her blog www.womenchangeafrica.com.[/tp]

[tp lang=”fr” not_in=”en”]Une dépêche de l’filles de Sierra Leone à propos de l’impact de la 3-days-Ebola Lockdown

J’attends toujours avec impatience des nouvelles de mes filles, car elles éclairent ma journée. Quand je remarquais le code +232 de la zone, je répondis, parce que je savais que l’appelant était un être aimé. Depuis l’épidémie d’Ebola,pa un seul appel en +232 est restée sans réponse.

Le téléphone sonna et j’entendis la voix joyeuse d’Isatu, elle me “bip”, une pratique régulière en Sierra Leone pour informer les personnes aimées de les rappeler.

“Tante Moiyattu, rappelle moi je n’ai plus de crédit.”

Depuis ce fut un phénomène normal entre nous. Je l’ai rappelée à la hâte. Elle m’a dit que c’était le deuxième jour de la Lockdown contre Ebola que le gouvernement de la Sierra Leone avait imposé au pays. Quand je lui ai demandé comment elle allait, elle a exprimé que tout allait bien, et qu’elle était de bonne humeur. Cela m’a fait sourire comme je me demandais quand je la reverrais.

Chaque année, mon organisation qui est axée sur le travail d’autonomisation des filles en Sierra Leone, accueille un sommet annuel qui réunit 50 filles sierra-léonaises âgées de 12 à 16 ans et de divers horizons pour un sommet de deux jours, en leur fournissant divers ateliers pour aider à améliorer leur sentiment de soi, à établir des relations avec leurs pairs, et former de jeunes mentors sierra-léonaises. Tout au long de l’année, les filles se rencontrent dans les petites cohortes et participer à des projets de développement communautaire.

Mon équipe et moi-même faisons cela depuis 2012, mais pour la première fois, les choses sont incertaines. Notre programmation axée sur la Sierra Leone a été mise en attente en raison de l’épidémie d’Ebola et nous n’avons aucune idée de ce que seront les prochaines étapes pour les filles ou l’organisation dans les prochains mois.

Lors de notre conversation, je demandai à Isatu comment le verrouillage allait.

“Les gens d’Ebola ils sont venus ajourd’hui” a-t-elle expliqué.

Une équipe d’intervention contre le virus Ebola avait été mené des sensibilisations ‘Ose-to-Ose’ (maison-à-maison) au cours des trois jours de verrouillage en Sierra Leone. Quand ils sont venus chez elle, elle m’a rapporté que l’équipe avait demandé à sa famille de se laver les mains, d’éviter les blessures et le contact peau-à-peau, et les a laissés avec une barre de savon.

Je souris à l’innocence de son explication et lui ai demandé si elle avait trouvé l’information utile. Elle a répondu qu’en effet, il était bon de l’entendre, mais qu’elle avait également entendu les mêmes informations de notre coordinateur national.

Je me demandais comment une barre de savon aiderait Isatu à rester stimulée scolairement afin qu’elle ne soit pas en retard sur ses cours? Comment une barre de savon aiderait à empêcher Ebola d’affecter la famille d’Isatu et bien d’autres familles? A ce moment, je voulais que la barre de savon puisse laver chaque souvenir terrible de cette épidémie d’Ebola. Je voulais la barre de savon puisse ramener les 500 vies et plus qui ont été perdues, je tiens à ce que la barre de savon ramène les filles de retour ensemble pour voir l’autre, je tiens à ce que la barre de savon permette à Gessl de se produire cette année, mais ça ne sera pas le cas. Il servir juste son objectif de quelques cycles de lavage des mains.

Je crains pour elle, mes filles de Gessl, et d’autres filles de Sierra Leone, parce que je ne vois pas de terme à cette épidémie. Depuis le début de l’épidémie d’Ebola, quelques-unes de nos filles ont perdu leurs parents pour des raisons inconnues. En outre, le gouvernement a interdit les rassemblements dans le pays. Par conséquent, les réunions régulières que nous avons eues avec elles avaient été mises en attente pendant trois mois.

Sachant que les filles comptaient sur nous et sur les autres pour le soutien, notre personnel a conçu un plan pour les appeler toutes les deux semaines afin de s’assurer que tout le monde va bien et pour prendre note de tous les besoins émergents avec lesquels nous pourrions aider.

Ce fut pendant ces appels qu’elles ont révélé certaines de leurs craintes et les pertes, et c’est de cette façon que nous avons découvert les décès dans leur famille. Au cours de ces appels, les filles ont divulgué qu’elles étaient impatientes de se réunir et combien elles se sont manqué depuis les réunions, et combien elles aspiraient à retourner à l’école.

L’impact d’Ebola sur les filles se fait à de nombreux niveaux; il insinue des craintes et incertitudes et enlève leurs lignes de vie, y compris les programmes essentiels tels que Gessl-leur contact avec d’autres filles et de leurs mentors. Ceci est ce que le virus Ebola a fait de plus critique pour notre travail; il démonte des projets significatifs, dilue les efforts et pousse plus loin les filles à réaliser leur plus grand potentiel. Notre travail significatif est venu à s’arrêter.

Lors de notre appel, elle me dit qu’elle est en train d’écrire dans son journal tous les jours à des personnes différentes, moi y compris à propos de son expérience lors du verrouillage. La chose la plus excitante qu’Isatu avait à me dire c’est qu’elle était arrivée en troisième position dans sa classe et passait en Senior Secondary Two (SS2). Je suis tellement fière d’elle et lui ai demandé quelle boisson elle voudrait lorsque nous célébrerons son succès. Elle a rit et a répondu que “anytin normor” (rien). Je me demandais quand l’école rouvrirait pour elle afin de revenir en arrière et continuer à exceller dans ses études.

En Sierra Leone, l’école reprend généralement en Septembre. Malheureusement, avec la propagation incontrôlable de l’Ebola, elles ont été fermées indéfiniment sous l’instruction du gouvernement. Tout le temps que les filles passent loin de l’école est préjudiciable à leur apprentissage et à leur fonctionnement social. Cela a un impact sévère pour les enfants dans le pays, surtout les filles qui sont déjà dans une situation désavantageuse quand on en vient à l’enseignement secondaire. Selon un rapport de l’UNICEF «si les taux de fréquentation pour les garçons et les filles sont presque égaux au niveau primaire, il y a un taux élevé d’abandon scolaire pour les filles et de leur scolarisation dans le secondaire est faible avec un taux de fréquentation de l’école secondaire de seulement 19%, la plupart des filles abandonnent l’école pendant l’école secondaire et l’épidémie d’Ebola pourraient faire que cela soit bien pire. Le fait que les filles doivent rester à la maison peut les exposer à certains comportements. Bien qu’il y ait des efforts faits dans le pays par des ONG locales pour aider les enfants à rester stimulés par les programmations de la radio, ceci est le meilleur qui puisse être fait. Mais il ne suffit toujours pas.

Comme nous étions sur le point de faire nos adieux, Isatu m’a demandé,

“Tante Moiyattu, le sommet va se passer cette année? Vais-je vous voir cette année en Décembre? ”

Chaque année, ma réponse a été la même,

“Oui, bien sûr ma chère ah-ils vivent en direct,”

Je leur dis souvent que je serai là. Cette année est différente et cela me fait mal. Ma voix tremblait en lui répondant. Je me rendis compte que la réponse que j’étais sur le point de lui donner était une entrée de plus sur sa liste d’incertitudes par rapport au virus Ebola. En ce moment, je ne suis pas la co-fondatrice d’une organisation, je suis sa sœur.

“Je ne suis pas encore sûre, nous vous ferons quand le prochain sommet de Gessl aura lieu.”

Je pouvais entendre sa tristesse à l’autre bout de la ligne.

“Nooon! Aye booooo! ”

A ce moment, il n’y avait rien que je puisse dire pour l’apaiser; il était impossible de lui assurer que le virus Ebola serait arrivé à son terme, ou que la vie allait reprendre comme d’habitude. J’étais à cours de mots. Ce fut l’une des conversations les plus difficiles que je l’ai eu cette année.

En attendant, nous continuons d’encourager les filles à écrire sur leurs expériences dans des revues non seulement à stimuler leur esprit, mais aussi comme un moyen de la thérapie. Nous espérons pour eux d’être en mesure de partager leurs histoires d’une manière collective un jour. Nous les encourageons à appeler les uns des autres, et, nous travaillons sur les moyens de soutenir leurs familles. Comme je l’ai fini avec l’appel, je lui assurai que je voudrais continuer à prier et lui ai demandé de faire la même chose. Je lui assurai que, un jour bientôt je l’espère, nous aurons un autre sommet, où elle jouera un rôle clé. Je ne peux qu’espérer que tout ce qu’elles ont appris au cours de ces deux années saura les garder connectées et les aider à passer par ces moments difficiles. Quand j’ai raccroché le téléphone, je me rendis compte que l’histoire d’Isatu et l’histoire de beaucoup de jeunes filles de la Sierra Leone, les filles de Kailahun, Kambia, Kono, étaient indicibles au milieu d’une telle épidémie.

Bio

Moiyattu est une féministe, écrivain et ‘Mover et Shaker’ numérique. Elle enseigne actuellement les études féminines à l’Université du Temple et fait un travail de conseil pour les entreprises sociales en Afrique de l’Ouest. Elle a participé au premier atelier des écrivains AWDF & FEMRITE tenu en Juillet 2014. Suivez-la sur Twitter @Wcaworld ou lisez son blog www.womenchangeafrica.com.[/tp]