The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that there were more than 14,122 total cases of Ebola and 3,955 deaths from the virus in Sierra Leone alone. During the Ebola outbreak, Don Bosco Fambul mobilized its staff and immediately began providing information about the prevention of Ebola. Salesian missionaries worked with local communities to provide food aid and education about Ebola while disseminating protective clothing including long-sleeve shirts and cleaning and disinfecting agents such as chlorine.

In addition, the organization provided 20 mobile hand washing basins fitted with taps and hygiene-related products to Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs for use in Freetown. Brother Lothar Wagner, director of Don Bosco Fambul, noted that the mobile hand washing basins were placed in strategic locations around the city to act as a reminder that good hygiene practices are some of the best methods to prevent the contraction of the Ebola virus.

Since 2010, Don Bosco Fambul has provided a countrywide phone counseling service. The organization began advertising its free hotline as a preventative defense against Ebola in May 2014 and youth were encouraged to call to access critical information about the virus. Since that time, more than 25,000 calls about Ebola have been answered and fielded. The data gathered as a result of the calls helped the country’s national registration office identify Ebola hotspots and crisis regions. The head of Don Bosco Fambul’s telephone counseling department maintained permanent contact with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry for Social Affairs as well as the Ebola command center. In addition, food deliveries were organized to the quarantine zones identified by these calls. Through the hotline, Don Bosco Fambul brought hope to the children and adolescents of one of the poorest country in the world during a terrible time of crisis.

Don Bosco Fambul, with assistance from the Catholic non-governmental development organization, Manos Unidas of Spain, also transformed a school into a home for 120 boys orphaned by Ebola. This unique care center for orphans on the Don Bosco Fambul campus meets the children’s basic needs while providing schooling and education on health and hygiene. Precautions around health and hygiene, including a focus on preventative measures, are extremely stringent since the orphans have all been in contact with people infected by Ebola.

Youth who do not have extended family to go to are able to stay long-term at Don Bosco Fambul, attend school and participate in activities such as music, dance and organized games. Counseling is also available to help them successfully transition into adulthood.

“Salesian missionaries live and work in the communities in which they serve so they are perfectly positioned to respond in times of crisis as they did during the Ebola epidemic,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “In addition to all of the Ebola related services, Don Bosco Fambul was still able to continue all of its regular programming providing education and social services to children and families who live in poverty.”

Providing crisis intervention services, long-term counseling, shelter, nutritious food and an education, Don Bosco Fambul reaches out to an estimated 2,500 street children in the region each year, many of whom have been abandoned by parents, the government and those who were supposed to protect them. Don Bosco Fambul staff are also active in providing services to young prisoners at the Pademba Road Prison in Freetown.

Don Bosco Fambul has also been running a Girls Shelter for the past two years. Here, professional social workers and pastoral workers provide crisis intervention and follow-up care for girls and young women who have been victims of sexual assault. Girls that access the shelter’s services are also able to attend educational programs that are a part of the broader Don Bosco Fambul network.

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Sources:

ANS – Sierra Leone – President awards Don Bosco Fambul

WHO – Ebola Stats

The post SIERRA LEONE: Don Bosco Fambul Receives Sierra Leone’s Presidential Award for Its Efforts in Fighting Ebola Epidemic first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Salesian missionaries already living and working in affected West African regions, including Sierra Leone, are working with local communities to provide food aid and education about Ebola while disseminating protective clothing including long-sleeve shirts and cleaning and disinfecting agents such as chlorine. Missionaries are also working to care for the children who have been affected by the outbreak, many of whom have lost parents to the disease.

Recently, Salesian-run Don Bosco Fambul, one of Sierra Leone’s leading child-welfare organizations, provided twenty mobile hand washing basins to Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs for use in Freetown. The mobile hand washing basins are fitted with taps and hygiene-related products. Brother Lothar Wagner, director of Don Bosco Fambul, noted that the mobile hand washing basins will be placed in strategic locations around Freetown to act as a reminder that good hygiene practices are some of the best methods to prevent the contraction of the Ebola virus.

Promoting the welfare of children is a top priority for staff at Don Bosco Fambul as they work to tackle issues affecting street children, in particular educating them on Ebola prevention. Social workers from the organization have been meeting with homeless children on the streets of Freetown in the evenings while other staff offer group counseling, mediation and family tracing services in an effort to return children to their relatives. Following the outbreak of the disease, Don Bosco Fambul provided much-needed items for children affected, including those living in quarantined homes.

“There are more than 1,560 children in quarantine because they have lost their parents or because they have been rejected by their families,” says Father Crisafulli, provincial of the Salesian province of English-speaking West Africa. “They are children who have experienced trauma such as the loss of family members, have been discriminated against, separated from their families and in some cases, accused of being the cause of evil. Although Salesians remain focused, it has not been easy to start a center for children orphaned by Ebola.”

Salesian missionaries are noting the spread of Ebola in places that were once free of the deadly disease and are recognizing the need for medical supplies and emergency food aid after having reported the deaths of 15 people in Tikonko, a village in the Bo District in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone. Residents of the village are poor and have no medical supplies or knowledge of the disease or how to prevent it.

Salesian Missions has launched an emergency fund to assist Salesian missionaries in Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone who are working to help contain the deadly outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa. To raise money for the fund, the Catholic nonprofit aid organization is issuing an urgent appeal for donations.

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Sources

ANS – Sierra Leone – Don Bosco donates mobile hand-wash basins to Children’s Ministry

ANS – Sierra Leone – Ebola out of control: 80 new cases a day

WHO – Sierra Leone Ebola Outbreak 

The post SIERRA LEONE: Don Bosco Fambul Donates Mobile Hand Washing Basins to Help Prevent Spread of Ebola first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Salesian missionaries already living and working in affected West African regions, including Sierra Leone, are working with local communities providing food aid and education about Ebola while disseminating protective clothing including long-sleeve shirts and cleaning and disinfecting agents such as chlorine. Salesians are also working to care for the children who have been affected by the outbreak, many who have lost their parents and must be placed with other relatives.

On Oct. 6, Don Bosco Fambul, in collaboration with Alhaji Moijue Kaikai, Sierra Leone’s Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs, held a special ceremony to reunite 12 surviving children once held at a patient care facility called the Hasting Holding Center, back with their relatives and extended family members. It was an emotional occasion with many of the children having lost one or both of their parents as well as siblings and other relatives to the Ebola outbreak.

“This is a very scary and traumatic time for these children,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Overcoming this deadly disease only to find they have lost parents, siblings and other relatives is devastating for them.”

One of the surviving children, a 13 year old named Martha Mansaray, said she has lost her parents and brothers as well as other relatives. She explained that her entire residence at Kamajor Bush at Waterloo was infected with the Ebola disease and many people including her parents and brothers lost their lives. She requested Don Bosco Fambul take her to visit her remaining relatives but preferred to remain under the care of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs and Don Bosco Fambul.

Another child, 6 year old Bintu Turay, was infected with Ebola from her late father at Josiah Drive in Freetown, according to an uncle who was reunited with her. Her uncle explained that the girl’s mother was alive but presently at a quarantined home.

The 12 children were among 49 others who survived the deadly Ebola disease at the Hastings Holding Center. Three of the 12 surviving children were immediately reunited with their relatives at the Hastings Center and the remaining nine were brought to Don Bosco Fambul under the supervision of the Ministry of Social Welfare.

Don Bosco Fambul is working to provide proper reunification for the children. Brother Lothar Wangler, director of Don Bosco Fambul, said the Salesians were asked by the Minister of Social Welfare to collect the surviving children from the Hastings Holding Center in order to avoid any possibility of child trafficking or harm to the children.

“There is a concern that Ebola could create more child trafficking, which happened during the civil war here,” says Bro. Wangler in a recent Aljazeera article about the stigma faced by Ebola’s youngest victims. “Children lost parents and ended up with strangers, and they were misused, went to the street and eventually came to Don Bosco. I have a fear this will continue for the next couple of years. We have to act now to prevent having those children again on the street.”

The West and Central African regional director for UNICEF, Manuel Fontaine, recently estimated the number of children orphaned by Ebola as of Sept. 30 to be at least 3,700. As of Oct, 10, according to Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health and Sanitation there were approximately 1,450 children orphaned by Ebola in the country and the number is expected to keep rising along with the disease’s death toll. The ministry has set up 14 interim care centers across the country.

Bro. Wangler noted that Don Bosco Fambul, in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Welfare, will be providing specialized care for children who are traumatized or have lost their parents in addition to creating special homes for children who have been affected by the Ebola outbreak in the country.

“Salesians working in these communities see the devastating effects of Ebola first-hand,” adds Fr. Hyde. “In the coming weeks and months Salesians will be working to ensure proper shelter and care is provided to children now orphaned as a result of the Ebola outbreak.”

Salesian Missions has launched an emergency fund to assist Salesian missionaries in Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone who are working to help contain the deadly outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa. To raise money for the fund, the Catholic nonprofit aid organization has launched an emergency fundraising campaign and is issuing an urgent appeal for donations.

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Sources

Aljazeera – ‘I feel I have no future’: Thousands orphaned by Ebola face stigma

Sierra Leone News – Social Welfare & Don Bosco Reunite Ebola Child Survivors with Relatives

UNICEF – Thousands of children orphaned by Ebola

World Health Organization – Ebola Global Response

The post SIERRA LEONE: Amidst Ebola Crisis Salesian Missionaries Reuniting Children with Family, Providing Homes for Orphaned Children first appeared on MissionNewswire.