We’re not harmful

The National Coordinator of the Ebola Survivors Network, the Rev. MeekieGlayweon, has made it emphatically clear that Ebola survivors are not harmful people as it is being speculated in certain quarters of the Liberian society.

Glayweon urged Liberians to consider Ebola survivors as people of great services to the health sector because they can no longer be infected with the virus, but can be used to care for and save the lives of those who come down with the disease.

“Stop stigmatizing us,” she warned, expressing the fear that stigmatizing Ebola survivors would reverse the gains made so far by the Government of Liberia and its partners in containing the virus in the country. She made the call Wednesday at a program marking the launch of ‘photo voices of Ebola Survivors’ at the Monrovia Christian Fellowship Center in Sinkor, Monrovia.

The Ebola ‘Survivors photo voices’ are geared toward affording Ebola survivors the opportunity to explain their problems with attached pictures. Rev. Glayweon said the issue of stigma is still on the increase in the country, warning that if it is not stopped it has the propensity to discriminate against Ebola survivors – a situation, she claimed, will further worsen their situation.

“I feel so bad being stigmatized; it makes me feel so pathetic because people whom we interacted with prior to contracting the virus are now afraid to interact with us,” she noted, saying that more than a hundred survivors were in the country – some of whom were renting prior to contracting the virus, but have been chased out and even rejected by family members and communities.

By Bridgett Milton – Editing by George Barpeen