By Yolanda Romero
BO, Sierra Leone, 30 December 2014 – Mousso Koroma will never forget the day she was told that her 14-year-old son Sanphan had died of Ebola.
Sanphan had been studying at a Koranic school in the village of Gbongema, which is a two-hour walk from his small village of Pelewahun. He and another boy were infected with Ebola virus. He was taken to the Moyamba district capital, Bo.
“I heard from the government officials that the two boys infected in the village Gbongema had died,” says Ms. Koroma.
It would have come as no surprise to Pelewahun. Ebola was deadly. A traditional funeral ceremony was organized. Mourners cooked and shared a meal, with some food set aside to feed Sanphan’s spirit on its journey to the next life.
Back to life, back to the community
As the family tried to cope with their grief, information began to surface that the boy might be alive. Reports of his passing were the result of poor lines of communication – a problem that would continue, as the family had their hopes lifted and dashed various times in the days following Sanphan’s ‘death’.
As it turns out, Sanphan had survived.
When he was released from care, the entire village turned out to welcome him home, a spectre who had defeated the deadly illness. UNICEF provided support to help reunite the family and reintegrate Sanphan into his community, assuring a social service officer from the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs would be present, delivering a Reunification and Family Tracing kit and helping to arrange distribution of food rations by the World Food Programme (WFP).
Sanphan returned home with a store of rice, beans and palm oil and some other essentials to start life again from scratch. UNICEF also delivered therapeutic food to help Sanphan rebuild his strength.
A new role for Sanphan
Survivors of Ebola can face stigma and discrimination when they are well enough to return to their homes. Sanphan’s community, however, welcomed his return. Not only had the boy survived Ebola – but his re-entry into the village helped reinforce messaging about Ebola that UNICEF and partners had been delivering to help avoid stigma. “We had heard through the radio that survivors could not infect other people,” says Sanphan’s uncle Joseph, a teacher.
Now that Sanphan is well on the way to rebuilding his strength, he is putting his ‘second life’ to use in the fight against Ebola. UNICEF is carrying out social mobilization activities in Gbongema to spread awareness about Ebola and how to avoid it. At a recent event, team members from UNICEF partner Action against Hunger (ACF) greet the chief. The villagers enjoy traditional songs and dances. Women clap along while Agnes Ngele, the government’s social mobilization coordinator in Moyamba district, dances in the centre of the circle.