Health

Ebola Orphans: West Africa’s Abandoned Children

April 29, 2015

“A picture is wort h a thousand words” not literally but…sigh this brought a thousand tears to my soul. Some of this children survived but the parents were not so lucky and now, there is a staggering number of orphans who are rejected by other relatives for fear of infection. These children urgently need special attention and support; yet many of them feel unwanted and even abandoned.

Thirteen-year-old Jennette* in Meliandou, Guinea, was about to finish sixth grade when she began helping her aunt care for her infected grandmother. Soon, Jennette contracted the virus. After the funeral,“ she says, “I started to feel sick.” Jennette spent 23 days in a treatment center and survived, but, she says, “I could not be happy….Ebola has taken seven members of my family.”

An abandoned building in Monrovia Liberia is one of the grim new homes for these children orphaned by Ebola

Deacon David holds two-week-old Sam Jefferson close to her. He’s subdued; she tries to coax with a loving kiss.The center is run by Ebola survivors. Once recovered, they are immune to this strain of the disease and can touch the children.

Deacon David pulled through after a month long battle with the deadly virus. She told us caring for these rejected children has given her new purpose.

“I touch them they know that I really love them and we still want to be together with them even if they are sick ,” she said. “They feel that we are one when I touch them.

At least 3,700 children in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have lost one or both parents to Ebola since the start of the outbreak in West Africa, according to preliminary UNICEF estimates, and many are being rejected by their surviving relatives for fear of infection.

“Thousands of children are living through the deaths of their mother, father or family members from Ebola,” said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Regional Director for West & Central Africa, who just returned from a two-week visit to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone said,

“These children urgently need special attention and support; yet many of them feel unwanted and even abandoned. Orphans are usually taken in by a member of the extended family, but in some communities, the fear surrounding Ebola is becoming stronger than family ties.”

Check out some of the images below.