Alone

Chief Pa Kapri Fallah is an old man now, acording to him he spent all his time and resources in raising up his children as heirs to his throne and now all gone, he lost 15 members of his family, his two eldest sons in university died, his wife died and all the imediate people that can take care of him when he is old, I cant talk to you much! I cant talk much sense because my heart is bleeding in pain as I speak to you, I dont know what to do and how to even start my life...his phone number is +23288107296, our people need us, take some time to speak with them, together we can make a change.

Tears

"So much tears for me wholeday long since morning, loosing my apetite since I visited Patebana, I could not belive that there are peolpe sleeping without food, mariatu J koroma in Patebana Village lost both her parent and two brothers in the Ebola crisis, she is presently stranding with her two younger brothers her parent left behind, she was also an Ebola patient just discharged from hospital, since then she never has any asistance from anyone, they are presently on quarantine and needs urgent help for food and clothing, her phone number is +23288070557, even a one minute consolation call will make a great difference in her life. Together we can change their lives."

In My Corner

IN MY CORNER BY
Abu Bakarr Nat Taylor-kamara

Despite of the fact there are promising signs that the infection rate of the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone has shown a downward trend in some districts especially the first affected areas like kailahun and kenema, I still have a very little idea when this misfortune will come to an end- sooner or later.  Most of all my district- Bombali and it neighborhoods are reporting a sharp upward trend of the virus for every slumber taken. This is more so as one of the many identified means of contamination is frequently in practice- social gathering.

Ironically, some of the identified measures to figure out the virus have been overburdened,  making it very difficult to understand exactly our chances of winning back this test we have been put into. The most important thing I think government should do now is to confidence by making sure that they provide trustworthy and consistent information about the disease to it people and those that are willing to help us and most importantly those that are put in charge in the fight to be thoroughly monitored.

In my corner,  the outbreak have uncovered a number of inadequacies especially with our health system that have been responsible for the much more social, economic and political sufferings. This have infused some tragic consequences in the fight and this was even why our President was moving too slow from behind in responding since the early quarters of the outbreak.  In summary, there is a lacking trust in the whole system which is yet to b overcome and this is naturally affecting the velocity of government's efforts to the fight. Building this trust back will take increased transparency and accountability,  love and above all the readiness for change and this I think will not be a short term project for Sierra Leone.

In my corner,  I have also realized that individual agencies or so called NGOs are taking chances of benefiting from the situation instead of facing the reality. By So doing they tell stories to have an incentive.  So government need to sort out some of these agencies or NGOs so that we could enjoy fact from anecdotes.

In my corner, I still question the realistic commitments delivered reliably and transparently.  Because I still hear the lonesome voices of those that are significantly touched in distance distressing the kindhearted as Marie Sesay, one of the Ebola survivors told me in a very disturbing tune " my life is seriously touched and there is no family left. I don't think I will survive this because the much attention is yet to reach my satisfaction despite of what I am hearing about us"

In my corner, I will always continue to wish myself and my country to enjoy the freedoms of which the prudence and providence of our ancestors had established.
God bless  mama salone and everyone of you that contributed

Help

"South Korea Announces $5.6 million To Aid The Fight Against Ebola In Sierra Leone. The government of South Korea announced another massive increase in its support to Sierra Leone in the fight against the Ebola Virus Disease.CCTV."

"Dutch Government Dishes Out 31million Euros To WHO And UNICEF To Combat Ebola Virus In Mano River States. The Government of the Netherlands(Holland) and the Dutch Philanthropists have braced themselves up to help kick Ebola out of the three Mano River States of Sierra Leone,Liberia and Guinea. EURO NEWS"

Greater Freetown...

Ebola in Sierra Leone:

"Due to the number of new Ebola cases in Western Area, Western Area is now considered  an Ebola High Transmission Area. This means that certain measures have been put in place. Below are the key points:

1.       CDC have reported that 70-80% of all new Ebola cases nationally are caused by people having contact with the bodies of those who have died from Ebola, and this % is increasing.

2.       In order to reduce new infections we have to reduce the number of people who have contact with the bodies of the deceased.

3.       Now that Western Area is considered a High Transmission Area:

    a.       All deaths have to be treated as suspected Ebola deaths (even if the family know the death was caused by old-age or another illness).

    b.      All bodies of the deceased must be removed from the community by the burial teams, ASAP, and always within 24 hours.

    c.       It is not possible to do a swab test on all bodies to learn whether the cause of death was Ebola or not before a body is removed from the home. It takes between 1-3 days to get the test results back from the labs, and 1-3 days is too long to leave the body in the house.
                                                     
          i.      If the death was caused by Ebola, the body is highly contagious and leaving it in the house will increase the risk of other members of the family getting Ebola.
                                                             
          ii.      Whether the death was caused by Ebola or another illness, it can be upsetting for families to be left with the body in the house without being able to touch it.

These are extraordinary times which call for extraordinary measures, and some difficult decisions have been made by the Freetown government leadership and the Mayor. The measures outlined above will be difficult for people, but we can all help to try and explain the reasons behind them and encourage communities to accept the above measures in order to keep themselves safe. The burial teams have been retrained in Safe, Dignified, Medical Burials. These burials do not allow anyone to wash or touch the body, but they ensure that the body is treated respectfully, and they allow for a priest or imam to read prayers and a small number (<10) of family members to observe the burial from a safe distance. The dead should be respected whilst the living are protected. 

Please help to share this information, and also to feedback any relevant information on how the new system is working (both in terms of community acceptance, and how burials are being conducted)."

Missing?

"Dis guy fell down at Rawdon St yesterday afternoon vomiting and was there till this evening please help share the news as his family may be looking for him"