WUNRN
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_76085.html
http://www.irinnews.org/report/100858/ebola-orphans-now-face-stigma-stress
Thousands of Children
Orphaned by Ebola: UNICEF - Girls
Orphaned children often face stigma and rejection
DAKAR/GENEVA/NEW YORK, 30 September 2014 – At
least 3,700 children in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have lost one or both
parents to Ebola since the start of the outbreak in West Africa, according to
preliminary UNICEF estimates, and many are being rejected by their surviving
relatives for fear of infection.
“Thousands of children are living through the deaths of their mother, father or
family members from Ebola,” said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Regional Director for
West & Central Africa, who just returned from a two-week visit to Guinea,
Liberia and Sierra Leone. “These children urgently need special attention and
support; yet many of them feel unwanted and even abandoned. Orphans are usually
taken in by a member of the extended family, but in some communities, the fear
surrounding Ebola is becoming stronger than family ties.”
As the death toll from Ebola continues to rise, preliminary reports from
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone suggest that the number of children orphaned
by Ebola has spiked in the past few weeks and is likely to double by mid-October.
Ebola is also exacting a heavy emotional toll on children, especially when they
or their parents have to be isolated for treatment.
As it accelerates its Ebola response, UNICEF is looking at traditional and new
ways to help provide children with the physical and emotional healing they
need:
- In Liberia, UNICEF is helping the government train 400
additional mental health and social workers. UNICEF is also working with
local authorities in the most affected counties to help strengthen family
and community support to children affected by Ebola and provide care to
those who have been rejected by their communities or whose families have
died.
- Over the next 6 months more than 2,500 Ebola
survivors – now immune to the disease – will be trained in Sierra Leone to
provide care and support to quarantined children in treatment centres.
UNICEF is also working with partners to reunite separated children with
their families through an extensive family tracing network across the
country which also provides children with psychosocial support.
- In Guinea, UNICEF and partners will provide about
60,000 vulnerable children and families in Ebola-affected communities with
psychosocial support.
“Ebola is turning a basic human reaction like comforting a sick
child into a potential death sentence,” said Fontaine. “The vast majority of
the children affected by Ebola are still left without appropriate care. We
cannot respond to a crisis of this nature and this scale in the usual ways. We
need more courage, more creativity, and far far more resources.”
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