This morning's headline on CNN was sad and shocking, but not at all unexpected: "Thousands of children orphaned by Ebola abandoned, stigmatized."
As I wrote a few weeks ago, children are exceptionally vulnerable in this horrible Ebola epidemic.
- First, they are highly vulnerable to the disease because they are in intimate contact with adults who are infected and since the infection spreads through all bodily fluids, even perspiration, children are at extremely high risk.
- Second, they are, more often than not, malnourished and therefore too weak to fight the ravages of the disease (see this letter from 2007 World of Children Honoree Dr. Mark Manary).
- Third, health care workers do not want to handle sick children because they fear infection since they do not have proper protective gear.
- Now this...that even families and friends are turning their backs on children orphaned by the disease.
This is a tragedy that is only growing and the statistics noted in the CNN article are only about those who have been counted. It is broadly believed that there are many more victims--adults and children--who are uncounted because they suffer and die at home in rural, hard-to-reach areas where there is limited contact with the outside world.
We must act, and act now to help these children. World of Children Award has carefully vetted the work of Honorees Dr. Mark Manary (2007) and Luke Hingson (2002) and your support of their work through this link will provide valuable support to these children as follows:
- With your financial support, Dr. Manary and his team on the ground will be able to feed and care for thousands of children to ensure they are properly nourished and, thus, better able to withstand the disease. And those who survive will be kept healthy though the appropriate feeding program.
- With your support by providing protective gear which Mr. Hingson and his team at Brother's Brother will urgently ship to the affected areas, we can help to ensure that health care workers will care for children because they will not be afraid of contamination since they will have the protective gear we have supplied to them. Needed items include gloves, gowns, masks, head coverings, etc. to shield against the spread of this deadly virus.
There has certainly been a lot of publicity surrounding the spread of this deadly disease but little has been written about the children who, as always, suffer the most and suffer quietly.
Let's not forget them. Help now »