Fighting The Outbreak of Ebola in Liberia

VAAFD , as the humanitarian organization joined  this fight against ebola since the beginning of the epidemic in Liberia 2014. From that time till now, we have been involved into contact tracing, Active case finding, and community mobilization/awareness.

• For the contact tracing, we have been able to discovered some families who were affected by the virus and we were able to identify all the people that possibly came in contact with the affected families, hence, their being quarantined came about. During the quarantine, we were able to contact other NGOs like, Hope worldwide Liberia who supplied them with food while we went in with preventive material like, Clorox, chlorine, Tie soap and the bucket with the valve for washing hands.
• For the active case finding, we were able to refer few sick people in the community to the ETU who eventually emerged positive with the virus.
• For the mobilization and community awareness, we have actively been working in three communities in Monrovia and making little impact in the three other counties we are working in, spreading the health ministry customized message as ‘ebola is real’, we have also been distributing the ebola preventive kits, teaching the people how to prepare the solution for washing their hands (0.05 solution) and for disinfecting infected areas and surfaces (0.5 solution). We are presently carrying on the awareness to let them know that ebola is not gone yet, as people have started going back to their normal way of life.

With all these interventions, the communities we work in are all observing great behavior change, hence no eruption of new case.

We have extended to tracing the survivors of the virus and orphans due to the virus, and enrolling them in schools of their choices or their guidance`s. as we speak, we have  registered ebola orphans in the Phebe school, Cuttington  Campus school and we will be going to Buchana and Kakata to do the same. 

One of the survivors families we met are the  Junior  Samuel family residing in a village call knuckles farm, on the out sketch of Totota, Bong county, Liberia. The parents died, leaving 5 children with the uncle (James Dahn who is also a survivor too. Junior is 8 years of age.  Junior information was in the New York Time in and a lady read about him and she was about to get in touch with us support and his family.

We also met the Mathew Kollie family that experienced the death of the two parents and the older son within a short period.  On the 8^th July, 2014, the mother of the home, Garmai Kollie came down with the signs and symptoms of the virus after caring for her sick brother who also died from the virus in the Phebe hospital. When she started vomiting and toileting with blood, she was taken to the Lamb clinic, where she was attended to and diagnosed with 4+ malaria. She was given amodiaquine with other drugs and sent home. But when she got home, the case started to increase. She was again taken to phebe where she was also given other treatment and sent home. Very early the next morning, the ambulance had to come to get her. On the way to the hospital, she died in the ambulance on the 23^rd of July 2014. So she was buried by the team.

After her burial, the family was quarantined for 21 days. Two weeks into the 21 day, her older son Abraham Kollie started experiencing rashes on his skin with fever and he was treated for missile. But after a little while, he started vomiting and toileting with blood as well. Unfortunately, Abraham died in the house on the 7^th of August, 2014 because there was no center to go and test him. Hospitals started to refuse patients at that time.

When Abraham died, the county health team came and sprayed the house and the body. After spraying the body, they asked the family to bury their dead themselves. It was a serious threat to the family because there was no protective gear. Eventually, a man came and wore nylon around his body and single handedly carried the body and buried it by the river.

On the 8^th of August, the father, Mathew Kollie started to show signs and symptoms as well. This time around, his sister Krubo Pewu, who works at the dental clinic and  was in the same house with them got behind the county health team to test this man to help solve the sequential death in the family. So the team came on the nine and took the specimen of the Mathew and carried it to Monrovia. Unfortunately, he died on the eleven and the result arrived on the twelve showing that he was positive.

The family now new that ebola was in the family. So all the Cuttington students that were staying in and around the house fled for their lives. Few days after, precisely on the 18^th of August 2014, Annie Sumo who came to visit her older sister Garmai Kollie, the first victim, came down with the same signs and synptoms. This time again, Krubo Pewu got behind the county Health team to attend to the girl. This time around, they came and only did the test again and the result came after one week. The team again said that they could not do anything about it. So the nurse started to dress up one of the boys of the late Mathew to feed and administer the drugs she brought. Other times, she went to the bush get some herbs and mixed with banana leaves and boiled it. After that, Annie will be brought out and be heated over the herb for hours. Continuously, they did these things and the Annie survived. After Annie survival, the family was quarantined for 42 days, and no one came down again.

Mr. and Mrs. Kollie left four children; Steven Kollie-18yrs in class 9, Prince Kollie-5yrs-nursery, Yonnah Koiile-10yrs-class 3 and Princess Kollie-5yrs-nursery (Prince and Princess are twin).

For the survivors, Annie Sumo, she has three children; Patience Sumo-11yrs, Mamie-6yrs and junior 12yrs old.

The challenge is now reintegration, schooling and feeding of the remaining family. 

 We came across two families in Meleki, Bong county, known as the  Wleh  and Kilinjah

We are now planning on going to other counties that were, and are affected by the epidemic to continue   our project, because so many survivals and ebola orphans are out there looking for means to survive.  

We are so proud of Globalgiving, all of our supports and donors if it has been for you we were not going to be able to reach all those that have reached and are to reach. Please feel free to contact us if you have any question.