The road to eradicating Ebola

Much still needs to be done but there is light in the darkness, writes Seán Farrell

Seán Farrell

Everywhere I look in Sierra Leone, the outward signs of Ebola are present: constant temperature checks, army roadblocks, ambulance sirens, fenced-off health clinics and houses cordoned off with tape to signify that the home is under quarantine and no one can go in or out.

The inward signs are also very present. I met a woman called Abibatu who sat quietly outside her house. Her husband, Philip, worked in the local hospital and caught the disease while treating patients. She contracted the disease while caring for him, as did their 24-year-old son. Her husband and son both died, but she survived and is now Ebola free; today, she sits quietly in her own world of suffering thinking of how Ebola brought such pain and trauma to her family.

This part of Sierra Leone has already had its share of suffering. The vicious civil war that ended in 2002 brought death, destruction and chaos. However, people here say that Ebola has been even worse than the war.
During the war, people could hear and see the danger all around them. They could flee from their homes and villages as the attacks were under way. Ebola has been different.

There has been no running from the deadly virus and no place to hide. It has been an invisible enemy that has become a deadly killer.

Empty house

As I walked to Abibatu’s house, I passed a house that lay empty and quiet in the midst of the noisy village. Ebola has taken the whole family. The empty shell of what was once a home sits as a testimony to the wrath that Ebola has brought to these communities.

Sr Mary Sweeney and her team of dedicated workers have been supported by Trócaire to provide much needed help to families here. Travelling with Sr Sweeney, I met the Koroma family. Five members of this family – including the father, Abdul – died from Ebola in the run-up to Christmas. The family’s mother, Aminata, now has 13 young surviving members of her extended family in her little house, including a small crying baby that she gave birth to in the last week of December.

The regular supplies of food and household items she receives from Trócaire has brought some relief in this time of sorrow.

One of the team describes their work as bringing support and comfort in the hours of greatest darkness when families are overwhelmed and without hope.
Support from Trócaire has had a massive impact. It has included educating people about how to avoid Ebola, providing food and household items to those affected, ensuring ambulances and health centres have drinking water as they collect and treat patients, and supporting communities to deal with the trauma of the death and destruction that is all around them.

Much still needs to be done but there is hope for the future. The number of cases are decreasing as the enormous effort to contain the disease begins to reap rewards. Communities are actively trying to tackle the killer in their midst.
However, one case is still one too many and the effort will continue until Ebola is no longer present.

Nurses and doctors have died and this will have long lasting impacts on the health system. Food production has also been affected with farmers unable to plant, harvest or access markets.

The rebuilding of Sierra Leone will be vital to help people get back on their feet.

As I watched Aminata’s 12-day-old baby reach out for her, I thought of the world he was born into. He arrived into a home where Ebola took his father and his older siblings and has brought untold pain and suffering into the heart of his family. And yet he is part of the future for this country.

The road to eradicating Ebola is still long and the path to re-building the country longer still. But this is the challenge and the need for all of us. It will require us to be here for the long haul and to walk this line of life with people as they re-build their homes, their communities and their country.

There is a light in the darkness and darkness cannot overcome.

Seán Farrell is Trócaire’s Director for Zimbabwe.