Enduring the stigma - burial workers in Sierra Leone
By Sahr Ngaujah, Communications Officer, World Vision Sierra Leone
"I’ve seen a lot in this job, but that was the saddest day of my life," reflects Francis. Eyes downcast, Francis recalls the day he buried a mother and her two-day-old daughter - two of the 4,000 victims of Ebola in Sierra Leone.
“This pregnant woman had escaped from an Ebola quarantined home in Freetown,” explains Francis, a burial worker with World Vision’s Safe and Dignified Burial Team in Bo, the country’s second largest city. “She went to her village and her people rejected her. She later delivered her baby in the bush alone. Two days later, both of them died.”
Discovering the bodies, community members called a hotline that dispatched a burial team of six men, including Francis. “I took care of the bodies and ensured they were safe for burial, while taking precautions to stay safe myself, too,” says Francis, explaining that the bodies of Ebola victims are highly contagious.
With support from DFID, World Vision is leading a consortium of NGOs which manage safe and dignified burials in seven districts. They are ensuring that Ebola victims can receive safe burials that give them a proper ceremony and grave site without placing their surviving family and loved ones at risk of infection. Since November 2014, the consortium has buried more than 2,000 people. Due to the severity of the Ebola outbreak, the government of Sierra Leone has asked that anyone who dies during the outbreak, be they Ebola positive or not, receives a safe burial to ensure that the disease is contained as much as possible.
“I joined the burial team because I am a patriotic citizen who could not sit by and watch things going bad in my country,” says Francis. “Ebola victims were dying by the minute but millions of people shied away from taking responsibility to help bury them properly.”
Volunteering for the burial team has not been without recriminations for Francis. “My cousin ordered his entire family not to have anything to do with me. I was told not to set foot in our compound or contend with the police. My wife abandoned me, taking our daughter with her. Friends despised me, too.”
Homeless, Francis tried renting a room. “On finding out that I am a burial worker, the landlord gave me an eviction notice without refunds,” he says.
The rejection and alienation followed him to the marketplace. “Motorcycle taxis would not take me, although I was paying for their services,” says Francis, with more sadness than bitterness. “One day I went to buy a plastic packet of cold water. Because I touched several in the cooler, the seller threw away the entire cooler full of packets.”
The 276 burial workers (266 males and 10 females) in World Vision’s 27 burial teams come from various backgrounds, but all have had their share of rejection.
Like Francis, Siddie was motivated by a sense of duty. “I joined the burial team not because of money, but to help eradicate Ebola in Sierra Leone. If we do not, who else will? We cannot expect casual workers to do the work we are supposed to do,” says Siddie, who normally works as a teacher in a primary school for deaf children, now closed for over a year. This well-spoken father-of-two holds a teacher’s certificate in education and an advanced certificate in computer technology. He is in the final year of a Bachelor of Arts programme at the University of Makeni. He should have graduated this month, but all courses were cancelled due to Ebola. Out of work and out of class himself, he signed on to the burial team.
“My relatives, including my wife, were not happy. So I had to move out temporarily, but I am in constant touch with them,” he says. “I will contribute towards fighting Ebola until it is eradicated in this country,” he concludes.
Abu is another committed burial worker who has endured rejection. “I told my relatives that I was working as a cleaner at the government hospital in Bo,” he says. “My work with the burial team was exposed when we went to bury a corpse in my village. I could not play the dodging game any longer. My worried mother asked, ‘Abu, is it money that you want?’ I told her that my work is a national sacrifice. If I had told my family that I was going to join the team, they would have driven me out of the house, so I left of my own free will. We are being stigmatized by the very people we are working to protect,” he says.
Francis admits that the social pressure can become almost too much to bear. “I planned to abandon the very work for which I have passion,” he admits. “But when World Vision took over the Safe and Dignified Burial project, things changed. My hope and courage were restored. Personal protective equipment is provided. We are given breakfast and lunch every day. During Christmas we even received a bonus. I am able to send support to my wife and daughter.”
Francis joined the burial team as a body carrier and was promoted to disinfectant sprayer and is now the team leader. He holds a diploma in Social Work and intends to use his skills to help his country rebuild and recover from the epidemic. “I want to educate communities on hygiene practices to avoid a recurrence of Ebola,” he says.
On the 25th of February, Bo became the fourth district in Sierra Leone to go 42 days without a single new case of Ebola being reported, and is still clear with no new cases. Bo district is home to several World Vision ADPs, including Jaiama Bongor, where the children are sponsored by supporters here in the UK. The contributions of World Vision’s burial workers in ensuring that none of the 58,000 sponsored children in Sierra Leone have contracted Ebola cannot go unnoticed.