“Don’t Touch” – Life in Ebola-stricken Sierra Leone - Humanity House
11 March 2015

“Don’t Touch” – Life in Ebola-stricken Sierra Leone

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CARE

CARE was founded shortly after World War II by a number of American organizations. They jointly decided to distribute relief packages to victims of the war in Europe. Millions of packages were distributed in the postwar years. CARE has now become one of the largest organizations in the world that focuses on the global struggle against poverty and its causes. CARE Netherlands was established in 2001 to strengthen the resilience of communities prone to disasters, including violent conflict, by addressing immediate needs and contributing to sustainable solutions to underlying causes of vulnerability.

CARE International’s Humanitarian Director, Barbara Jackson, visits Sierra Leone and experiences the meaning of a simple but vital instruction: don’t touch a soul.

“Don’t touch.” I hear this slogan over and over again here in Sierra Leone. I am on a visit with my colleagues to meet the diverse range of partners and stakeholders with which CARE is working to fight the terrible disease that has ravaged West Africa in the past seven months: Ebola. I hear this advice from all sides: from the Sierra Leonean military, to the DERC (District Ebola Response Centre) Director, to the traditional Head Chief for the area, and from all of our staff. It is a simple but vitally critical instruction that we must all practise if we are to reach the target of zero Ebola cases in the entire region.

Progress is being made
Colleagues tell me that several of the community case management centres are in the process of being closed as well as one or two of the major Ebola treatment centres, simply because the overall number of people requiring care is decreasing significantly. There is a sense of hope and encouragement that this terrible outbreak which has affected every single person in this country in one way or another is coming to an end.

Yet, as we travel to and from Mekene, one of the original hotspots of the Ebola virus, I observe empty local market stalls, and a few scattered buses and local transport vehicles on the streets. Not many people are walking alongside the road – a very marked difference from most of the rural African settings I have seen. I can see that the Ebola crisis is definitely NOT over and that, even in the few days I have been here in Sierra Leone, the number of cases has risen. Our staff tell me that people are still afraid to report a suspected case, as they may never see their loved one again.

Forcing myself to keep my arms down
I have to consciously hold my arms to my sides to resist extending my hand for an introductory handshake, to embrace a colleague I’ve known in the past or to hug one staff member in compassion as he tells me how he lost eight of his friends and relatives to Ebola. We are “not to touch” each other. We must maintain not only vigilance but continue to strengthen our joint efforts to prevent more cases, to ensure appropriate and dignified burials, to ensure that people access health care in time. We cannot take our eyes off the most important goal: reducing the Ebola outbreak to zero cases. And we need, as CARE, to ensure that our programming continues to reflect this commitment and support.

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