What happens when the rice runs out?

For families who have managed to remain unaffected by Ebola in West Africa, another crisis is now looming – hunger.

By Sarah Wilson, World Vision Ebola Response Communications Manager

Umu had been serving smaller and smaller portions of rice to her family for weeks. Last week the rice ran out altogether.

“We bought a large bag of rice at Yagoi to sell to make cash,” she explained. “But we had to eat it instead. After they stopped us from using the ferries there wasn’t anything else.”

Uma lives in a small settlement on Sherbro Island in the Bonthe district of Sierra Leone.

Like most people living here, her husband is a fisherman and the family used to trade the fish he caught at nearby markets for other goods to sell. They used the profits to buy what they needed themselves to survive.

Since the Ebola outbreak last May, the islanders have been restricted from travelling to markets in a bid to protect them from catching the disease.

The restrictions have been a success, and hardly any cases of Ebola have occurred on the islands. However, the fact that the residents have not been able to get to markets for more than four months has drastically curtailed their diet.

“When there is no food, we worry for the children the most,” said Umu. She has six children ranging in age from four to 17 years old and she is currently pregnant with another on the way.

World Vision has been distributing rations of yellow split peas, rice, fortified cereal and oil to the communities on Sherbro Island and the surrounding Bonthe District. Because there are no adequate roads or bridges, the food is being flown in on World Food Programme helicopters and dropped on the beaches.

The communities organise teams to collect the food on the beach and store it in schools until it can be distributed fairly between the families in the community. The schools, like the ferries that used to bring people to market, are currently stopped to keep everyone as healthy as possible.

Without humanitarian assistance, Ebola affected families would find it increasingly difficult to feed themselves. The World Food Programme estimates that 200,000 people are already having trouble finding enough to eat as a result of Ebola, and this number may rise as high as 1.4 million by March 2015. World Vision is working in Sierra Leone to support health workers, organise safe burials, and help families who have been affected by Ebola.