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| 4 Persons at a time, Team members crossing over to Klehn's Town |
By 2:30 PM, after a 6 hours journey, our Team arrived at the riverside, a
stone throw to Klehn’s Town; villagers pull to the river crossing to meet us,
as the man who controls the traditionally made Wood Fairy pulled his rope
towards us. Every member of the team appeared exhausted, from the several
bouncing due to pot holes, as the car speeds. The Town has
over 200 houses, with over 1000 inhabitants according to authorities there.
Two confirmed cases of Ebola had been reported in Klehn’s Town, both died
at home before authority could arrived in August and September, with up to 12
suspected cases.
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| Klehn's Town residents gathered with questions |
As we entered the Town, women and children scrambled to greet us.
Everyone knew we were there to talk to them about Ebola, because they saw the
Ebola buckets in our hands. Before
we had arrived, a group came and left one bucket at the riverside for the
villagers to wash their hands. As if that was not enough, as we walked
to the Chief’s office, villagers young and old surrounded us, prepared with
serious questions and concerns about the epidemic. Some appeared frustrated
while others simply needed more clarity. Key among these questions were: is the
government is doing anything to end Ebola in Liberia, apart from just
encouraging hand-washing? Which of the bush meats we should not eat, and why
are we only treating humans if the animals are the carrier of Ebola? Will we
ever eat bush meat again?
Two
months earlier, while on an assessment tour, I was touched by some stories.
Others I could not bear. The situation taking place in Klehn’s Town was serious
by then, as some Ebola victims had just migrated from Margibi County, walking
through the forest and crossing over to this almost isolated village. Klehn’s Town, like
other villages in Rural Montserrado, Nyeamah
(Gomoshu) in lower Careysburg are almost completely isolated and surrounded by treacherous terrain. The migration of suspected Ebola victims is one of the key
causes of Ebola cases these communities, because in most
cases, when family members are sick, they prefer to go to native doctors or go
to other family members in the interior for traditional medications. The
increase wave of stigma, ineffective response and poor contact tracing
efforts, have complicated the probability for effective surveillance for Ebola victims.
Team members of Youth Crime Watch
of Liberia’s Ebola Emergency Liberia
campaign, as part of the Early Warning Working group, led a three days
Awareness, Sensitization campaign and distribution of Health Kits across ten communities in Grand Bassa, A similar exercise was held for two days in rural Montserrado for ten communities as well. Materials were acquire with support from Humanity
United. On the way to Klehn’s Town, our team covered three other Town and
villages, including Jacob Miller Town, Compound 3, and St. John.
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| A water bottle hangs at Jacob Miller Town Chief's Office |
In Jacob Miller Town, residents - men, women and children came running to
us as we entered the town. They gathered at the Tribal Chief’s Hut. Mr. James Dolo, Tribal Chief for Leegbhn Section was excited to welcomed us
and started to tell us about his communities. Jacob Miller itself is close to
the main road, a small Town, but the Chief has more than 20 villages under his
Jurisdiction. These villages can only be assessed by motorbike or on foot. The Town Chief said “I only have this mineral bottle, I put
pieces of iron soap in it with water for people to wash their hands, we are
here in this town, on the road, we don’t have bucket or Clorox to wash our
hands, just think about our people in the bush”.
Both Klehn’s and Jacob Miller Towns
don’t have easy access to communication, so you cannot call anybody with mobile
phones there. Only residents can make a call, because climb
trees to find signal. There is no Drugs Store
in Klehn’s Town, however there is a government clinic few hours away, the next nearest
access to medication is Compound # 3, is about two hours by car, equivalent to days of
walking.
There has been organization of
local Task forces already since my last assessment, but one of the just
trained task force members for the communities around Klehn’s town complained
that he has not been able to do his job. “We just receive the training, but
I don’t know how they expect us to go around in the villages to talk to people”
he complained. He said that the training he just received is the second time
he has receiving such training about Ebola, “but they just tell us to go and educate our
people,….I don’t know how?” he added. It is very rare to see commercial
vehicles, except few that travel only during market days in particular, major
Towns. Travelers will have to wait for a luck, or walk to the nearest town to
catch motorbike or vehicle, only during a market day.
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| Compound # 3 Youth Center, G. Bassa County |
These rural communities boarder other
affected counties, Rivercess, Margibi and Bong Counties, all Ebola hit
counties. Authorities in Buchanan sent medical teams to Klehn’s town to train
residents on how to bury their dead, but in any reverse case, residents
will have to wait for days again in order for a response to come from Buchanan
City. The nearest biggest Town along the way, which has access both internet and telephone, but Ebola
Treatment Center, except a Quarantine Center which is currently closed for
lack of resources, after recently discharging two suspected patients. Therefore,
there is currently no capacity for rapid response in district # 3. There is a
local Task Force, with whom leaders we met at the Youth Center, together with the
district health technician, and other youth leaders who all stressed
willingness to get involved, but noted
serious challenges, the lack of logistical support and capacity to carry out planned
activities. Even the Youth Center which is still open to young people, and is
used for other meeting purposes during this Ebola era didn’t have a bucket or
any other sanitizing kits for visitors during our visit.
In most of the communities, local
authorities are making efforts to mobilize local sensitization Task Forces,
some by the central government…however, setting up a Task Force is one thing, making
it operational is another. this which means having the capacity to do what is
require. It occurs to me that these local structures are still looking on the
road for donors to help them carry out community driven awareness, some were
even formed because they saw it as a way of employment, rather than a social
obligation. Thus, until the government and other international agencies are able to
fully capacitate these local structures, it will make no difference at all
whether there was a Task Force or not. Recently, the main county Task Force in
Buchanan city receive another harsh warning as citizens demonstrated for
the removal of the County Superintendent, who is playing host to the county
Task Force and administration of Ebola Relief Funds. Demonstrators are citing corruption and misappropriation
of resources. The previous Task Force coordinator resigned because of similar reasons.
The Center for Disease Control
warned earlier that without additional interventions or changes in community
behavior, by January 20, 2015, there will be a total of approximately 550,000 Ebola cases in Liberia and Sierra
Leone, or 1.4 million if
corrections for underreporting are made.
To date, according to CDC’s updated
profile of October 5th 2014, Cases in Liberia are currently doubling
every 15-20 days, and those in Sierra Leone and Guinea are doubling every 30-40
days. Liberia along has accounted for over 3,924
Cases, with Total Deaths of 2,210.Almost
all victims identified from remote Towns and Villages either died before
authority could arrive or died on the way to an Ebola Treatment Unit.
The President of Liberia, on
October 14th call for more assistance from world leaders in a
letter to the world. "This fight requires a commitment from every
nation that has the capacity to help, whether that is with emergency funds,
medical supplies or clinical expertise; the virus has been able to spread so
rapidly because of the insufficient strength of the emergency, medical and
military services that remain under-resourced," she said
As we set up response efforts in
the main cities, serious community-level intervention is require to win
this fight (especially in hugely populated slum communities,
isolated towns and villages). Due to the education level of our country (which has illiteracy rate of over
70%) and the remoteness of most communities, we can’t be sure
how many victims have migrated from the cities to other rural communities already or
how well people are yielding to messages, because many of them have unanswered questions. Also, we can not rely on radio
messages (not every community has coverage), and distribution of flyers only. These efforts need to be accompanied
by an aggressive community driven door – to – door awareness, sensitization and
dramatization of behavior change messages, particularly in affected and
threatened areas. Citizens need to talk and have their questions answered Ebola Treatment Units need to be decentralized and alternative medications accessible to
communities through local pharmacists and clinics.
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| Thomas Barlue with Jacob Miller Town Residence |
The Publisher is a Young Peace Ambassador, One
Young World Ambassador,
Community Solutions Fellow; a committed, grass root, youth and community
development advocate, has been working and inspiring change among and for
children and youth since 2004. He can be contacted Via Email: onedream.lib@gmail.com / Skype: one-dream.lib / Twitter: @teeman101
