Ebola Killed Every Mother In This Liberian Village

Ebola Killed Every Mother In This Village

One small town in Liberia has been so badly ravaged by Ebola that every single child has been left without his or her mother.

The tragedy in the village of Joeblow began at a traditional funeral for a prominent woman. As is customary, all of the village women bathed in the water used to clean the deceased woman, Street Child Founder Tom Dannatt explained to HuffPost Live's Alyona Minkovski on Tuesday.

"They got Ebola, one by one ... and literally the entire [population of] young women of that village were wiped out," Dannatt said. "When my colleague arrived in that village in December, what she saw was a couple of old ladies, a couple of grandmas, just looking after a village full of children. The men were in the field working, and, you know, this is the sort of extraordinary sight that Ebola is creating."

Chloe Brett, who also works with Street Child, told The Telegraph, "It's now a village of no mothers and very confused children with blank looks on their faces."

UNICEF estimates as many as 10,000 children have lost at least one parent to Ebola in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Ebola "tends to rip through whole families," Dannatt said, adding that when children are orphaned by the disease, their possessions are burned during the disinfection process.

"So you’ve got no relatives, no possessions, and your best chance is that your aunt, your uncle will take you in. It'll typically also be a very poor family," Dannatt said. "It really is one of the saddest human conditions you could possibly imagine."

Sign up here for Live Today, HuffPost Live's new morning email that will let you know the newsmakers, celebrities and politicians joining us that day and give you the best clips from the day before!

Before You Go

Livia Saavedra
Dgenebou Soumah, 20, Coyah Prefecture
"Her fiancé came to see her when she came home, but she doesn’t know if they will get married. Despite the death of her mother, her aunt, and her niece, she is full of life."
Livia Saavedra
M’Balia, Coyah Prefecture
"M’Balia’s husband died in September. She is now facing extreme poverty and cannot afford to feed her children every day. As a widow with two children, she has no chance of remarrying."
Livia Saavedra
Fanta and Sydia Bangoura
"Only the little girl was infected with the disease. The children haven’t realized that they are now orphans. The problem of caring for children affected by the disease is becoming urgent."
Livia Saavedra
M’Balia Sylla with her father-in-law
"Her father-in-law has always supported her. It took a lot of persuasion from the community health workers to convince her to seek treatment. She works at the nursing station at the KM 36 military barracks. Ever since she received her certificate of discharge from the military, her community has been more present."
Livia Saavedra
Kanta, Conakry
"Kanta is from a Wahhabi family. Despite her unease and the horrible stigma she suffers, she wants to speak up about her experience."
Livia Saavedra
Bengali Souma, 27
"He lost his job and has to care for his younger brother and sister. He will need to be very successful in order to reintegrate into his community, otherwise they will continue to think that he is cursed."
Livia Saavedra
Nyanbalamou Gabou, 24
"Nyanbalamou Gabou is a medical student. He raised awareness about the disease with his neighbors before being infected. As a result, he wasn’t rejected by his community when he returned home."
Livia Saavedra
Mamadou Sadio Bah
"Mamadou Sadio Bah is a doctor in a health center. Ever since he got sick, he has been working to dispel myths about the disease."
Livia Saavedra
Fanta Camara, 25
"She works at the Ebola Treatment Center in Donka. She lost her position as a teacher because of her illness."
Livia Saavedra
Fanta Cherif
"Fanta Cherif remains hidden in her house. Her friends don’t call her any more and her studies have been put on hold by her illness. The after-effects of the virus lasted for a long time in her case. You can recover from Ebola but still experience symptoms for up to seven weeks."
Livia Saavedra
Fatoumata Binta
"Ever since her brother and five members of her family died, Fatoumata Binta has had to take care of her younger brother. Her neighbors have closed the shutters facing her house. She is thinking about working at the Ebola center in Donka."
Livia Saavedra
"Crazy rumors about the Ebola epidemic are making it even more difficult for health workers to do their jobs. In the absence of treatment, the sick turn to their traditional healer, which contributes to the spread of the disease."
Livia Saavedra
"People living in Coyah or at the KM 36 military base (shown above), who are infected with Ebola have to be treated at the Ebola Treatment Center in Donka Hospital in Conakry."
Livia Saavedra
"Two of the main epicenters for the disease are in Nzerekore in Forest Guinea and in Conakry (shown above)."
Livia Saavedra
"The sanitary conditions, the lack of access to running water, and poverty are preventing the population from fighting the Ebola outbreak."
Livia Saavedra
"A prevention poster in Conakry. The government’s delay in responding to the crisis and the 24 billion Guinean francs in cuts from the health budget at the beginning of the outbreak contributed to the overall scale of the epidemic."
Close

What's Hot