Survivors protest discrimination, stigmatization
The Ebola Survivors Association of Liberia or ESAL has seriously complained of continuous discrimination and stigmatization against its members across Liberia.
Some children made orphans by the Ebola Virus Disease
At a one- day workshop held recently at the Corina Hotel on 24th Street Sinkor in Monrovia, the President of the Ebola Survivors Association of Liberia, Korlia Barnawolo, said, they are being discriminated against and stigmatized since they left the Ebola Treatment Units.
Mr. Barnawolo said members of the Association have volunteered their services to work in the various ETUs in and around Monrovia. He stressed that Ebola survivors continue to live with stigma since they left the ETUs.
He noted that Ebola should not be considered a death sentence, adding that once a case is reported early it can be cured and once you are cured, you cannot get it again. The ESAL President appealed to the Government of Liberia to support children, who lost their parents to the Ebola Virus Disease.
He said in the wake of plan by the Government to reopen schools across the country, the authorities here should assist children made orphans by Ebola to get in school, and disclosed that the association has about 250 members currently.
Ten years old Mercy Moore, an Ebola survivor, said that she lost her mother, grandmother and aunty during the peak of the outbreak.
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Mercy narrated that her mother contracted the virus from her sister and that’s how the whole house got affected. According to her, when she had the virus, she was not very weak so she used to play in the day, but fever always caught her at night. The minor said she presently lives with her uncle.
“I want for Ma Ellen to help us to send us to school, because it was my mother, who was doing everything for me; now she is dead, nobody is helping me”, she pleaded. The one day workshop was sponsored by the United Nations Mission in Liberia or UNMIL to bring all survivors together and see how they can put an end to continued discrimination and stigmatization.
