Helping to restore dignity
After losing her aunt to Ebola, 38-year-old Elizabeth decided to join the burial team working in her local community in Sierra Leone. Like Ebola survivors, burial workers like Elizabeth carry the stigma of being closely linked to the virus, and can find themselves shunned by their community. In spite of this, Elizabeth feels that attending to the burial rights of deceased victims is an important step in fighting the disease.
Elizabeth joined the burial team last October when she heard that World Vision was recruiting burial workers to implement safe and dignified burials as part of our Ebola response. Elizabeth especially wanted to increase the number of female burial workers who are vastly outnumbered by men on the burial teams.
“There was a need for women to join the burial team to restore the dignity of my fellow women. I thought, and still think, it is not proper for men to attend to or prepare the body of women who have died of Ebola for burial. In my burial team, if a female is involved, I always go in first in my full personal protective equipment and prepare the body in a respectful manner before the men come in,” Elizabeth explains proudly.
This past Christmas, the government of Sierra Leone placed restrictions on travel to try and minimise the spread of Ebola. People were allowed to attend church on Christmas day, but they were asked to return home immediately after services to celebrate Christmas at home with their families.
When we spoke to Elizabeth just before the holiday, she told us, "There will be no holiday for me this Christmas. This Christmas we will meet to work. A lot of people die of Ebola on a daily basis and burial workers are called upon to bury the dead on time, to avoid the spread of the virus. The longer the dead stay, the greater the risk of infection. Nobody knows what will happen on Christmas day.”
Burial workers are widely known to have close contact with Ebola victims because of the nature of their jobs, and as a result are often shunned. The stigma can become so bad in their communities that some burial workers have had their tenancies terminated by fearful landlords.
Yet the role of burial workers in managing Ebola has never been more important, and is a key part of stopping the disease’s spread. As the death toll has risen, the demands on burial workers have as well. The faster they can bury the dead, the better the chance the families have of avoiding further spread of the virus. The longer the dead stay unburied, the more likely families are to resort to traditional burial practices and the greater the risk of infection.
Elizabeth has a 16-year-old daughter who lives with her uncle in the capital, Freetown, where she normally attends Secondary School. However, with schools closed indefinitely, Elizabeth’s daughter is now out of school and this is also one of Elizabeth’s many reasons for joining the fight against Ebola.
“We must all sacrifice to fight Ebola, in order for things to be normal again. My daughter is out of school and I am not happy about that. I am scared. I call my daughter to educate her about Ebola so she can take it seriously,” Elizabeth said sadly.
With help from sponsors, World Vision has helped people like Elizabeth conduct safe and dignified burials for around 3,000 people - an important step in the fight against Ebola. As part of the wider emergency response in West Africa, World Vision has also been helping to coordinate ambulance fleets, provide vehicle cleaners, decontaminators, and training, to help them deal effectively with burials.