07/11/2015
Today November 7th 2015 is a memorable day in the recent history of Sierra Leone, as the day that the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the end of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Sierra Leone, this happened after a successful 42 days countdown of no new case of Ebola in the entire country.
Almost 18 months ago, this deadly epidemic called Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) hit Sierra Leone, at a time that we know nothing about it and was not prepared in any way to confront the challenge.
With absolutely little or no experience to fight this untouchable disease, over 8,700 people became infected, some due to ignorance, some due to care and compassion for their loved ones, some due to the ex*****on of their professional duties as Doctors and Nurses, whiles some were owing to deliberate complacency and denial of the virus. Almost 3,600 lost their lives and a little above 4,000 people that were infected barely managed through the grace of God to overcome the disease and became survivors.
Our recorded Heroes and Heroines are our Doctors, Nurses, Health Workers, Children, Women and Youths who lost their precious lives to the deadly Ebola virus disease.
We must only use today to celebrate God’s goodness, mercy and love to our beloved country Sierra Leone and not a day to celebrate the declaration of the end of Ebola, as we should remain very vigilant and continue to practice all the safety rules and measures we used in fighting the scourge. If we dare relent to go back to complacency, then we expose our victory to negative re-occurrence, as in relation to what happened in Liberia. Let’s have in mind that the EVD is still within our neighborhoods (Guinea & Liberia), and we can only celebrate complete victory, when the three countries are totally declared free of the EVD.
I want to salute His Excellency our President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma, the grand chief commander who spearheaded the fight; I will hereby continue to recognize the support and relentless efforts of the following – The CEO of the National Ebola Response Center – Rtd. Brig. Alfred Paulo Conteh, WHO, CDC, UNICEF, UNDP, PLAN, EU, DFID, EHealth, IOM, MDA’s, Countries & Embassies, All the media houses (TV, Radios & News Agencies), Other INGO’s & NGO’s, Banks, Mining Companies, Mobile Companies & all other business houses, Paramount Chiefs /Community Stakeholders and all citizen of our beloved motherland Sierra Leone for our different intervention and contribution in the fight.
At this juncture, I cannot continue to overemphasize the rapid, tremendous and lead civic roles the young people played during the response of the deadly Ebola outbreak. The young people did take the forefront as volunteers, and risked their lives to fight the deadly disease as Doctors, Nurses, Burial Teams, Cleaners, Drivers, Social Mobilisers, task forces etc. My appeal is that these young people must own the Post-Ebola recovery plans and it must cut across for all to benefit.
Every Sierra Leonean that stayed and went through the epidemic in Sierra Leone were affected and can be called a survivor, but those who were infected with the deadly EVD and survived must be considered as iconic survivors and they should not be stigmatized or discriminated. I implore the government and all those concerned to pay special premium and keen attention to the EVD affected survivors, as many now do suffer from health abnormalities, economic instability, psycho-social disorder and livelihood constrains. EVD survivors, please ensure you absolutely adhere to all the prescriptions given to you, especially sexual abstinence or complete prevention to avoid infecting your loved one.
Long live the courageous and resilient people and our beloved country Sierra Leone.
Musa Khalil Koroma
Executive Director
Global Youth Network.
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