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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