![Photo of Isatu by Michael Solis.]()
Photo of Isatu by Michael Solis.
The need
Sierra Leone has recorded 14,124 reported cases of Ebola, 3,956 deaths, and more than 4,000 survivors who have not been able to return to their previous jobs. The country declared the end of Ebola human-to-human transmission on March 17, 2016. However, survivors face many continuing challenges. Reintegration into their communities can be an immense challenge as fear and stigmatization can result in the former patients being ostracized. Although most are discharged from treatment facilities with a certificate stating they are Ebola-free, and although blood tests prove that Ebola has left the body, the psychological scars left behind in the wake of the virus, leave survivors embarking on a new healing process. A typical story is that of Isatu.
Isatu contracted Ebola from her sister-in-law, who fell ill shortly after attending a funeral ceremony. The sister-in-law’s symptoms played out quickly, and before long she was dead. Within a matter of days, Isatu’s brother, his baby, and Isatu were all feeling ill with the same symptoms the sister-in-law experienced. The baby didn’t survive, but Isatu and her brother did. The experience was one of the most traumatic of Isatu’s life. “There was so much fear,” she says. “You didn’t know what was happening to you, and nobody had answers. You didn’t know if you were going to die, or if you were going to come back.” Readjusting to life after Ebola has not been easy for Isatu, and she was convinced that she had been cursed. Six people in Isatu’s family died of Ebola, and her partner ended up leaving her for another woman. Prior to Ebola, Isatu had been working as a petty trader, but she still hasn’t recovered the strength to carry and sell her goods. For a time she felt like committing suicide and wished that the virus had taken her too, since it had already robbed her of so much. Isatu still struggles with fatigue, deteriorated vision, physical weakness, depression, and mental distress.
Like Isatu, many of the Ebola survivors are unable to return to their old livelihoods. Part of the Heeling Our World program is to provide skills training in shoe making. Not only will this provide a pathway to economic empowerment, but it will also address the plight of Sierra Leone’s barefoot children.
Of the many basic necessities of life that children in Sierra Leone still lack are shoes. Even though the number of barefoot children in Sierra Leone is unknown because of factors that make it difficult to collect such data, it is estimated by NGOs like Caritas Freetown, Lanyi Foundation, and Tzu Chi Foundation that there are thousands of children in Sierra Leone who have no shoes or very poor shoes. The lack of shoes leaves them very vulnerable to health risks. Barefoot children almost always sustain cuts and burns under the soles of their feet, which lead to infections and other serious health issues. Also, the bareness of the feet can cause infection of contagious diseases when barefoot walkers step on infectious bodily fluid or similar substances. For Sierra Leone barefoot children, infections from cuts, burns, jiggers, and other diseases are common reoccurrences that affect their health, growth, productivity, livelihood, and concentration in school.
The Heeling Our World Project
Arts to End Genocide (ATEG), with local partners, is working to end the suffering of barefoot children in Sierra Leone, by not only providing shoes made by children in the United States, but also by teaching mothers and caregivers how to make shoes, thereby empowering them with skills to make shoes for their children using local, readily available materials. By teaching caregivers of children how to make shoes, ATEG and partners will increase independence for the mother, promote health for the child, and secure a sustainable solution to addressing the needs of barefoot walkers. Our objectives for Sierra Leone are in three projects. The first is Rural Women Shoe Making Project. The rural women project will teach mothers and caregivers in remote villages how to make shoes. And after attaining the skills, ATEG will coordinate the participants to teach their neighbors in the next villages. Second is a community-based shoe making project that will teach women survivors of Ebola the skills of making shoes, to equip them with skills and opportunities to increase their independence and be financially sustainable. This project will make it possible for women who survived Ebola to make shoes and sell them in local markets, and, perhaps, in an ATEG e-commerce marketplace. The third project involves high school students making shoes in the United States for orphans in Sierra Leone.
Progress update
ATEG is partnering with three organizations in Sierra Leone; Lanyi Foundation, Caritas Freetown, and Tzu Chi Foundation. Our contact person is Stephen Fomba, who grew up as a barefoot child and is now an advocate. The local partners have discussed the project in length and approved its importance and benefit to Sierra Leone. With a strong committed partnership on the ground, ATEG is moving forward with sending shoes made by high school students in the United States to Sierra Leone for orphans, training of local contact and partners to make shoes, and is beginning implementation of the proposed projects.