On The Frontlines Of Ebola In Sierra Leone

Young girl orphaned by ebola virus.

Amid all the fear-mongering, misinformation, and public squawking here in the US, there is one thing that we forget - most of us aren't on the frontlines in West Africa fighting this disease. We have those things that a government, like in Sierra Leone is missing, a safety net, albeit in tatters. What is it like in a place where this illness is spreading and family members are dying? Who is helping to support these families in such need?

Let's take a look. Some of the most overlooked people, teenage girls, are finding that they are ending up shouldering the burden. Their families are at the edge of survival anyway; an illness like ebola can endanger that knife-edge balance. Teen girls receive very little assistance, since youth programs are likely to focus on boys; yet they are the primary fallback when families face emergencies.



In order to fight this crisis, the Sierra Leone government has seen fit to withdraw funds from charitable groups to focus its monetary resources on fighting the ebola outbreak. But withdrawing funds from vital social services may actually prolong the outbreak.

For instance, there are 17 Reproductive Health Service Centers located throughout the country, which provided nearly for nearly 100% of basic contraceptive services for women and female teenagers. Once these services were no longer funded, there would be very little ability to reduce teen pregnancy. You see, because many families were already in survival mode before the outbreak, teen girls were used to trading sexual favors for such goods as cell phones and money that their families needed to survive. In addition, all schools were closed for this school term, leading to the great potential that many girls will end their education entirely.

An aid worker educates children about ebola prevention.

Members groups that are part of the Sierra Leone Adolescent Network feel it is vital to winning the fight against the ebola epidemic to empower the country's adolescent girls. For instance, the illness has taken both parents in some of the stricken families, leaving the oldest girl to provide for the remaining children. There is the danger that in order to provide monetary support for the remaining family that girls will feel forced to engage in risky behaviors. Yet. families with a teen girl family head are last in line to receive any time of assistance. This is the great need in order to fight the illness. UNFPA is one of the partners involved with the Sierra Leone Adolescent Girls Network and is providing vital additional funds in several areas to combat the spread of ebola. There is concern about the spread of the virus through sexual transmission, since the virus can survive in male semen up to 100 days after recovery.

Chernor Bah, one of the co-founders of the Salone Adolescent Girls Network wrote an excellent article about the issues and how his organization is working to address them here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chernor-bah/ebola-young-girls_b_6082494.html?utm_hp_ref=impact&ir=Impact.

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Simple Concept; Big Help

Do you ever wonder what would happen if all that wasted food - the stuff we don't eat, but is quite edible, those extras we end up throwing out - could be put to better use? In the US, 49 million Americans, about 14.5% of US families, don't get enough to eat every day. Yet, an enormous amount of food gets thrown out.

Enter Carolyn North, who noticed one Thanksgiving Day some thirty years ago, how much food one of her neighbors was tossing out after that yearly feast. Eventually, that led to an organization in the San Francisco Bay area, DAILY BREAD, which collects unwanted food and redistributes it to the hungry through homeless shelters and food pantries. Most remarkable of all, this entire enterprise takes place on a weekly basis with no expenditure of funds.


Utilizing rotating teams of volunteers, the group makes a weekly run to participating restaurants and bakeries to collect surplus food and then distributes all of it to local food kitchens. Ms. North plans and coordinates the routes, so that volunteers are located close to pick-up and drop-off sites and complete the process while engaged in their normal, everyday activities. The entire process takes one hour. However, it has spawned feelings of community and cooperation among participants. This group allowed community members an active role in supporting less fortunate neighbors through sharing.

Obviously, with this organization continuing to operate for more than 30 years, there have been changes in what businesses provide their surplus contributions. Well, they have that handled, too. Some restaurant chains participate in surplus food distribution in other areas of this country, so it's a natural that they come to participate in Daily Bread. Then, the volunteers themselves notice food businesses that have excess food being thrown away and make contact with the business, so then they have another participant. Volunteers are recruited by notices in the local newspaper, East Bay Express.

Carolyn North, the woman with inspiration.

Daily Bread has gotten so good at their mission that they have published GUIDELINES, which they share with other, similar organizations. Because Ms. North has been so willing to share her experience, a number of similar groups have been established in other areas, operating in their own way and incorporating the flavor of their own community. More in-depth information can be found here: http://www.servicespace.org/blog/view.php?id=15521.

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A Remarkable Young Woman

Lauren at Indiana Fever game

Not many people would do what 19-year-old Lauren Hill is doing when faced with a terminal illness. Most people would be in bed or at a hospice receiving end-of-life care. But not so for this ambitious young woman.

You see, Lauren Hill prefers to live life as it comes, even though that life doesn't have much time left. You see, Lauren has brain cancer and her health has been deteriorating quickly. But she also attends college; she's a freshman at Mount St. Joseph University and she also plays on their basketball team.


Just gutting it out through her symptoms and the side effects of her medicine takes a huge amount of effort, but that hasn't deterred Lauren. She plays her heart out at practices. But the looming timetable of her illness caused official at Mount St. Joseph to push the opening game against Hiram College almost two weeks, so she could play and have her biggest dream come true. Because so many fans have bought tickets to this game, Xavier University allowed the game to be played at Cintas Center. Since the Center holds 10,000 seats, even more people can come to see this game.

So, at a time when many others are planning their lives, thinking of careers, and even feeling invulnerable, Lauren still doesn't put the focus of her thoughts on herself. Although this special game, this dream come true happens on Nov. 2, she has requested that the proceeds from this game go to THE CURE STARTS NOW FOUNDATION, which supports research for pediatric cancer.

You can find more information about Lauren Hill, her special friendship with a young man diagnosed with the same type of cancer, and Lauren's philosophy on life in this article: FACING DEATH, TEEN TEACHES US LIFE LESSONS.

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Mealshare In Toronto

Three young men in western Canada had this great idea, following the buy one give one concept. Back in July of last year, they started the concept with four restaurants. Now, more than one year later, they have added four more restaurants from Toronto, for a grand total of 84 restaurants in seven cities participating in the program.

So, the idea is that when you decide to dine out, you can look for the Mealshare logo on the menu of a participating restaurant and when you buy that item, money is donated to charity. The concept is very easy to understand for customers; they can enjoy an amazing meal on a night out, and because their menu choice had a specific logo on it, they know that when they buy that meal, they make it possible for someone less fortunate to have a meal, also. Customers are not charged extra for choosing the meal and the restaurant donates a small amount, about one Canadian dollar to Mealshare. Customers also receive a thank you card embedded with seeds, which they can plant in a home garden.

Mealshare donates about half its funds locally and the rest internationally. The organization has an arrangement with Save the Children to distribute meals to school children in Africa for three years.

Three young co-founders publicity photo for expansion to Toronto.

Upcoming plans include an expansion into Lethbridge and a western Canadian restaurant chain with some 62 locations.


Mealshare's co-founders, Andrew Hall and Jeremy Bryant, worked at multinational consulting and accounting companies, according to The Winnipeg Free Press, while Derek Juno had spent eight months teaching English at an orphanage school in Cambodia and knew Mr. Hall from business school. There was a desire among these men to give back in some meaningful way.
The idea reached fruition with the realization that millions of people eat out at restaurants every day and if they could get only a small amount of contribution from each Mealshare meal, they could do quite a lot. As soon as Mr. Juno returned home to Vancouver, he began to work full time their idea. Eventually, Mr. Hall and Mr. Bryant quit their lucrative positions to work full time with Mealshare.

And when you realize that these young men are only 25 years old, you realize how this whole project is a work of love and passion.

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