SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH OF CLUNY VICE PROVINCE OF WEST AFRICA 25 Charlotte Street, P.O. Box 129, Freetown, Sierra Leone. Email: sastev3@yahoo.co.uk 11 th February 2015 Dear Sisters, Friends and Supporters, Greetings from Sierra Leone. This letter is an attempt to make contact with all of you who have supported our work in Sierra Leone during the outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease in the country. I wish to give you an idea of how your contributions have been used and to express my gratitude for your help. Ebola Virus Disease has been known to medical science since 1976. A number of African countries have experienced outbreaks in the past four decades but they have always been contained within limited geographical areas and quickly controlled. In those villages which had been affected the effects were devastating but rapid spread to other regions was not a feature of the illness until now. Sierra Leone has twelve administrative districts plus the Western area, which contains the capital city, Freetown. Every one of these areas has played host to the ebola virus during the past year. Denial has been a huge barrier to limiting transmission of the disease. The advertising - community sensitization, a multitude of sign boards, radio and television announcements - floods us with the information that the body of a person who has died from ebola is highly, HIGHLY contagious. The body should be left for those who are adequately protected to collect and take for burial. But still families insist on performing ritual washings and two to three weeks later every adult in that house is dead, leaving only the younger children behind. It is so difficult for us to understand the power that traditional practice has to bring people to choose to perform an action will which surely lead to their death. The extreme fragility of the health infrastructure has been highlighted by this situation. People who developed symptoms were not able to access care because there was simply nowhere to go. They were cared for at home, with those caring for them also becoming infected. That situation, which was widely publicised in the international media, has now improved, with holding and treatment facilities available for all who require them. We have been fortunate that none of the nineteen sisters working in Sierra Leone has contracted ebola. However, the communities in which we live and work have been badly affected. Through the amazingly generous response of different NGO s, Sisters in other Provinces, family members, friends, parish communities and individuals, we have been enabled to respond in a variety of ways to the needs of people affected by the ebola situation. Below are some examples of how your contributions have been used. Assistance to people in Quarantine When a person is identified with ebola, the compound where that person was living is placed under quarantine for 21 days (the incubation period for the disease). People living in that compound are given an initial supply of food from WFP but that supply is rarely sufficient to last for the full quarantine period. People who live by what they earn each day do not have enough food in their houses to last three weeks,
nor can they afford to buy any when they are not permitted to engage in their daily work. We were able to become part of the network which supplied supplementary food and drinking water to people under quarantine. All necessary precautions were taken to prevent those doing deliveries coming into direct contact with people who were quarantined. Moyamba the supply is left at the quarantine boundary for collection by those in quarantine. Sr. Joyce Manalel speaks with some of the people in quarantine. Freetown group waiting for arrival of supply. In Freetown there could be over 100 people in one quarantined compound. Health Care We do not have facilities suitable for the treatment of people infected with ebola. That is left to the appropriately equipped centres. However, one of the tragedies of the ebola crisis was that many people died of treatable non-ebola illnesses because so many health facilities closed down. Our clinic in Makeni was able to remain open and continue to provide a service in the area. This was due to the courage of the staff and the support received through: Provision of protective clothing
Funds to guarantee staff salaries & a supply of medications so all, regardless of capacity to pay, could be treated. The clinic has a nutrition programme where we teach mothers to make a high protein porridge using locally available ingredients. One agency is now sponsoring the clinic to produce and distribute this food for 500 vulnerable infants. A nurse in Loreto clinic fully garbed! Support for those who have lost jobs due to ebola. Cleaning staff of St. Joseph s Secondary School, Brookfields on the first rice day, Oct 2014. One newspaper reported that 32% of private sector workers have been either sacked or sent on compulsory leave without pay. Many businesses had to either close or significantly scale down. Schools have been closed for six months. Non teaching staff in our schools boarding staff, cleaners, groundsmen, toilet attendants etc who are paid from school subsidies and fees, have been laid off as the schools are currently receiving neither fees nor subsidies. From funds received we have been able to give rice and money each month to over 50 people who have lost their jobs.
Water Supply to Schools One of the constant health messages during this time of ebola has been the need for regular hand washing. That is all well and good, but many areas of Freetown have only intermittent water supply (every second or third day) and very few schools have water storage facilities. The reopening of schools is planned for the end of March 2015. We have identified 10 schools in Freetown where we plan to improve the water situation to provide a safer environment for the students and teachers when schools eventually reopen. St. Edward s Boys Primary school is the first of the schools to benefit from this plan. The school had one tap for a school population of 800 children. There was no water supply into the toilet block. Water is on for three days each week. A site for a storage tank was identified (upper left) The available water pressure determined the height of the tank stand. (middle left). As the land slopes down to the toilet block, a connection was made from the storage tank to a tank in the toilet block and taps were installed for hand washing. (bottom left) Each classroom will have a bucket with a tap connection, filled from the tank each morning, for general hand washing purposes.
Support to Vulnerable Groups. Many children have been left orphaned. While it is possible that many of these children will be taken and cared for by members of their extended families, tracing such family members will take time. In the meantime the children need to be cared for in a safe environment. Srs Faustina Sesay and Anne Lansana with two orphaned girls in Waterloo. 27 orphaned children are being cared for by the proprietor of a small school outside of Waterloo. We have been able to provide assistance in the form of mattresses and food supplies. Children from the Waterloo orphanage. The reopening of schools, after a closure of six months, is planned for the end of March this year. Some of the funds that we have received have been held to provide assistance for our students who have lost the parents or guardians who were financing their education. The past six months have been characterised by fear, grief and increased economic hardship for the people of Sierra Leone (and Guinea and Liberia). Your support has enabled us to provide some relief to the people whose lives have been turned upside down by ebola. For this we are extremely grateful. May God richly bless you. Sr Ann Stevens SJC on behalf of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny in Sierra Leone.