I met Alieu over a quiet afternoon at ActionAid office in Freetown. We were stunned to hear his story of loss, courage and hope. He is one of over 2204 Ebola Survivors (this figure is increasing day by day) in Sierra Leone who now face the uphill task of rebuilding their lives and livelihoods. Here is Alieu's story: "I am Alieu Kamara, aged 33. I did not believe few months back that my life would change so dramatically. I was hoping to be a father soon. My wife was 6 months pregnant in December 2014. Ours was a happy family. I worked as a driver in private food processing company and my wife was a petty trader. She used to go to districts outside Freetown to buy goods and sell it to the traders in Freetown. As a young couple, we had dreams to set up family and settle down in Freetown.
Unfortunately during one of her visits to up country, my wife contracted EVD. I also contracted the virus unknowingly when I was attending to my wife. Few of my wife’s family members also contracted the virus when she went on to live with them. I do not remember what exactly happened during this time, I was not in my full senses at that time because the virus had also started affecting me. But by the time I recovered on 24th December, I found my family devastated. Eight family members and friends had died before I recovered. My wife had died with my unborn child. Not only that I lost my father – in – law, adopted daughter of 11 years, two brothers of my late wife, uncle and aunt and one of my friends to who helped me during the disease. Darkness enveloped me after my release from the treatment centre.
I was supposed to burn down my belongings of my house where I stayed for 19 years. But where was I supposed to go? My neighbours did not allow me to stay in the rented house that I was staying earlier. I was driven out from there. I came and took refuge in my brother’s place. I was offered no compensation for my huge loss. When I went back to work, the employers did not take me in saying that they have employed another person in my place since mine was a temporary appointment (although I had worked there for more than one year, the employers do this to avoid taxes here). I am still running post to pillar to get the discharge pack. But I am not so much worried to get the discharge pack (consists of some non-food items and food items), as I am interested to regain my livelihood that would revive me and my life. I hope government and other organisations do a little more to restore the livelihoods of Ebola survivors and affected families. Government should also give skills training to the Ebola survivors so that they stand on their feet. Organisations like ActionAid should work as monitors of the programmes and schemes for the Ebola survivors and should campaign for jobs for us. I really hope that we learn lessons from this epidemic and strengthen our health systems and health surveillance.
For me life would go on. Of course now I am not able to sleep properly. What would you expect when a person loses everything in a matter of months? But I am ready to do a job and I am ready to start living." ActionAid has already supported over 265,000 people affected by Ebola in Sierra Leone, through public education on Ebola prevention, providing sanitation supplies to health facilities, food and sanitary items to quarantined households and orphans, and education packs to children. But we will also be here for years to come, with our local partners helping communities, the survivors particularly women, to regain their jobs and go back into education, but also campaign for better health services in Sierra Leone. We will also work closely with communities make sure that they are better prepared for any future health crises.