Thousands of West African Children Orphaned by Ebola - East Idaho News

Thousands of West African Children Orphaned by Ebola

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Thinkstock 093014 Ebola?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1412113762938Bumbasor/iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Nearly 4,000 children in West Africa have lost one or both parents to the ongoing Ebola outbreak, a staggering figure reported by the United Nations Children’s Fund on Tuesday.

“Thousands of children are living through the deaths of their mother, father or family members from Ebola,” UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa Manuel Fontaine said in a statement. “These children urgently need special attention and support; yet many of them feel unwanted and even abandoned.”

UNICEF’s report suggests that the number of children orphaned by the disease has “spiked” in the last few weeks and “is likely to double by mid-October.”

The organization is hoping to train 400 more mental health and social workers in Liberia to help support and provide care for those who “have been rejected by their communities or whose families have died.” An additional 2,500 Ebola survivors — now immune to the disease — will be given training in Sierra Leone in the next six months in the hope of providing care to quarantined children in treatment centers.

UNICEF will also provide “psychosocial support” to about 60,000 vulnerable children and families in Guinea.

“Ebola is turning a basic human reaction like comforting a sick child into a potential death sentence,” Fontaine said. “We cannot respond to a crisis of this nature and this scale in the usual ways. We need more courage, more creativity and far far more resources.”

Donations can be made online at UNICEF’s website.


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