Survivors of the EVD are still facing stigmatization in which psychosocial counselors of regulatory agencies include the Red Cross, Gender Ministry, religious leaders are at the front to make sure that survivors are reintegrated into their community.
Tonia Corneh is a mother of two, and an Ebola survivor. Her sister died from Ebola while giving birth with no one left to care for the baby, Tonia took the new born orphan home. That’s how she and her children got infected. “I was not sick but my two boys were, it was very bad,” she said.
She used to import second handed clothes from Guinea and sell them in the market, but with the closure of the borders during the Ebola crises, she lost that source of income. To make things worse, all her belongings were burned when she was discharged from Ebola treatment unit, leaving the family in a dire economic situation.
Not all Ebola survivors are empowered financially, something they have on numerous occasion complained of.
Nancy Stephens, a mother of six disclosed that she had to resume responsibilities of her late brother’s five children including her four but no efforts and funds have been given to the children since they lost their parents to the EVD.
She said that all efforts to at least have the children place on Scholarship have failed something she terms as regrettable and frustrating.
Though some don’t have funds nor support, the ICRC has a funded cash assistance program which has empower several survivors.
The ICRC launched the assistance program November 2014 aimed at helping survivors get back on their feet as they reintegrate into their communities.
April this year, the ICRC disclosed that over 1,700 people had been assisted including Ebola survivors and family members who relatives died from the virus, each of the recipients received 200 USD.
The Cash assistance program is expected to end this June and apart from ICRC initiative no other has been designed to empower survivors.
Published in collaboration with Ouestaf News and with support from Osiwa.
