By Mafanta Kromah
A survey on how citizens mobilized to address the Ebola crisis in their communities has underscored the need for government to listen to citizens and community-based leaders to improve the health care system.
The survey, conducted by the Liberia Center Outcomes Research in Mental Health (LICORMH), called on the government to develop trusting relationships with communities, so they can respond to health emergencies more effectively.
It examined how citizens’ response to the civil war and the Ebola crisis to determine how lessons learned from the two situations can be used to address other problems. The research was done in Margibi and Monsterrado, focusing on interviews with stakeholders including health officials, local officials, Ebola survivors and citizens.
Mr. Wilfred Gwaikolo, Deputy Program Lead at the Carter Center’s Mental Health Program, said the findings and recommendations were based on interviews with 30 stakeholders including health officials, local officials, Ebola survivors and local organizations.
The findings were shared with a group of journalists recently.
According to sending the findings out to the public will help them understand how people reacted to the outbreak of Ebola and how they can prepare or respond to future outbreak.
“Part of the research, our aid was to find out how the community can be resilent, those finds are how of the way communities can find resilence,” he noted.
Mr. Gwaikolo said the Ebola and the civil war produced similar response from people. Both incidents invoked fear, resulted in loss of lives and impacted the economy.
During the Liberian civil war, people knew the enemy and target. But in the case of Ebola, they didn’t know anything about it. People were also stigmatized and there was a lot of misinformation.
“Communities felt there were things they could do to mitigate the impact of Ebola such as handwashing, proper sanitation, quarantine,’’ he said. ‘In the case of the war, communities felt more helpless.’’
According to UN estimates, the Liberian civil war killed some 250,000 people and displaced more than 500,000 people in neighboring countries and Europe, America and the rest of the world.
The first Ebola case was reported in March 2014. 11,207 people were reported to have died from the Ebola Virus in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leon, out of that number, 43 percent is said to be from Liberia.
It is also reported that there are 17,000 survivors in West Africa, 5000 of whom is said be from Liberia. The Liberia Ministry of Health (MOH) maintains a registry of EVD survivors because—persons who were admitted to the Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU) were recorded. However, only 1500 EVD survivors are registered in the Liberian MOH database
Madam Madu Kamara said she could relate to some of the stories shared in the study.
‘Ebola was the worst enemy in her life. I lost my dearest husband, my father, mother, sister, brothers and other family members. I will never forget for the rest of my life.’’
Mr. James Mulbah of Paynesville, said Ebola was “a bad dream’ for a lot of families.
“We had to live like strangers,’’ he said. ‘’We were not allowed to eat together. There was way for family members to cherish their loved ones because they were afraid to be the next victim.’’