It could be a photo taken anywhere – the proud grandparents, posing alongside their loving grandchildren for the family album.
But these children have not dropped in to see their grandparents for the day. Ramatu and Alusine have, in their seventies when they should be putting their feet up and resting, found themselves caring for 18 grandchildren after their family was decimated by Ebola.
Now, instead of taking things slowly, Ramatu is desperately trying to earn enough to feed, clothe and educate the children in her care – the youngest of whom is not yet walking.
This is the reality for hundreds of elderly men and women Sierra Leone, post-Ebola.
Family: Ramatu and her husband are now responsible for raising 18 of their grandchildren – six of whom were orphaned when their parents died of Ebola. But, in their 70s, they are struggling to clothe, feed and educate the growing children, as well as themselves
Survivor: Bintu, 11, lost both her parents to Ebola, along with her two brothers. She also got the disease, but survived it. But she and her three little sisters, one still a baby, were now orphans – and in Liberia, hundreds of miles away from their grandparents
More than 12,000 children lost their primary carer during the outbreak in this small West African state, while more than 3,000 lost both parents.
Bintu, 11, was one of those who lost both – although she and her three little sisters were living in Monrovia, Liberia, when their parents were struck down.
‘My mother died, my father died,’ she told MailOnline, speaking quietly with her head bowed as she sat outside her grandmother’s house in a small village a few hours outside the capital Freetown.
‘My two brothers are dead. It was Ebola.’
Bintu was also infected, but she survived.
‘I got it because I went to help my family,’ she said. ‘My parents were traders who travelled, and when they came back they were sick. My father was helping my mother, then he got sick. Then I was taking care of them.’
By the time she recovered, the four children were alone – her youngest sisters having avoided the infection.
It was then Ramatu, 70, made the long and treacherous journey across Ebola-infected Sierra Leone to Monrovia – an eight hour journey in a car, far longer when you are reliant on public transport.
She returned with the four girls – one still a babe in arms. By the end of the epidemic, another two grandchildren had joined her, their parents also dead in the Liberian capital. Added to this, the 12 grandchildren Ramatu was already raising for her children – a not unusual situation in a country where death long before old age is commonplace.
Saviour: Ramatu made the difficult journey to go and get the children, and bought them home with her. She is now raising them, with help from UK charity Street Child, who provide her with basic food for the children, and have set her up with a small business to bring in money
Orphans: Ebola left more than 12,000 children without their primary care giver. Grandparents across this poverty-stricken country are having to find a way to raise their children’s children, after the disease killed 8,0000 people. Pictured: A cemetery for young Ebola victims
The children are all outside when MailOnline arrives, meeting the family ahead of the launch of Street Child‘s Girls Speak Out appeal. The older ones are looking after the younger ones, and Ramatu’s husband sits in the shade, hiding from the heat of the midday sun. Brightly coloured clothes flutter on the washing line, while bush fowl peck at the ground.
And Ramatu’s face lights up when she sees the social worker emerge from the car.
‘Thanks to Street Child,’ she says, clapping her hands as she talks. ‘So much, simply because the contribution they make.’
Ramatu could not feed the children without the help she receives from the UK-based charity – deliveries of basic food keep them going.
But Ramatu, at an age when others are thinking of retirement, has also set up her own business – like thousands of others last year, with the help of a grant. And, for the moment, Street Child is helping put the children through school. In an ideal world, she will one day be able to afford to pay the fees herself – but with 18 mouths to feed, it seems an impossible task.
In the wake of the Ebola crisis, however, it is not just cost which is holding children back, but stigma.
Across the country, huge billboards proclaim ‘Ebola survivors are heroes and heroines. They cannot infect you with Ebola’.
Others remind people that the children who beat the disease ‘are still our children’.
Stigma: But after people manage to get their children back into school, there are still huge hurdles to get them to stay there. Aja is back in school after her mother died, but has been bullied by her classmates because of the stigma attached to the disease
Bullying: The problem is so bad that the government has had to put posters up to encourage people not to isolate children
Determination: Amnata has also been bullied for having had the disease, but is defiant in the face of her tormentors. ‘Everybody dies – my parents just died of Ebola,’ she told MailOnline. ‘I am a hero for surviving’
‘In a normal disaster, like and earthquake or car crash or war, once it has happened, you go and look after the victims,’ Street Child founder Tom Dannatt told MailOnline.
‘But because there was this mysterious thing around Ebola, no one wanted to go near. It has resulted in extreme exclusion of people who have been through this grim experience.’
Aja is one of those children: she was at school when her mother fell died from Ebola, and she was rushed into quarantine.
She speaks proudly of her mother – a woman who desperately wanted her children to be well-educated, and was working hard to do so.
‘My mother was a nurse,’ she said. ‘She was looking after people. Then she contracted the virus.’
But when Ajais asked about what it was like going back to school, the tears begin to flow.
‘I was stigmatised,’ she says, and then cannot go any further.
Amnata was also bullied when she began attending her new school in Sierra Leone. She too can barely talk about it, but she remains defiant in the face of the stigma.
‘I am a hero for surviving,’ she says, repeating the mantra the government has introduced as a way of combating stigma. ‘And I would like to say to those who are calling me names, that everybody dies. My parents just died of Ebola.’
Future: Stigma and a lack of money are just a handful of the reasons such a small percentage of girls in Sierra Leone reach secondary level education, meaning girls like Aja are few and far between. Street Child is trying to break down some of the barriers – including teen pregnancy and child marriage – with its new Girls Speak Out appeal
THE TINY VILLAGE DECIMATED BY EBOLA – BUT WHICH REFUSED TO BE BEATEN
The small village in Sierra Leone is still counting the cost of Ebola: 55 people died here, taken in the most horrendous way.
So no one would be surprised if the survivors – less than 200, many of them now orphans – were still in shock.
But they decided not to be beaten by this disease which killed 8,000 people across the small, West African state.
The villagers gathered together and made a decision.
‘We thought, maybe if we were educated, we would have known how to get Ebola. So we decided to build a school, so our children would have more knowledge.’
Today, that school stands as a proud tribute to the 55 people buried nearby – a symbol not only of what the villagers of Mabamp can achieve, but what people across Sierra Leone are doing to rebuild their lives in the face of a disaster which left 8,000 dead, and 15,000 children orphaned.
Built on hope: Mabamp villagers decided to build this school after it lost 55 people during the Ebola outbreak. They feared their lack of education had made them more vulnerable, and they wanted to give their children the knowledge to fight future epidemics
But it would not have been built at all – or at least not finished – had UK charity Street Child not stumbled across the first mud blocks last May, just ahead of the rainy season.
‘There was no way they were going to finish that school before the rains came,’ the charity’s founder Tom Dannatt.
‘We didn’t have the money in the budget at the time, but we were so inspired by what they were doing – with no outside funding – that we managed to pull together about £1,000.
‘They used it to buy corrugated iron to protect the blocks they had made. When I went back six weeks ago, it was complete.’
The school is just one minor victory for the charity – and a major one for the village.
The stigma is just another block in the road for girls wanting to go to finish their education in Sierra Leone, a country where so few girls make it to secondary school, or higher.
These girls are already fighting a range of issues which can stop girls going to school, like teen pregnancy, child marriage and being able to afford the £40 a year in fees.
These are all issues that Street Child is trying to highlight with its new appeal, which aims to raise £1million to get 20,000 children into school – and help them stay there.
In the wake of Ebola, it is hugely ambitious – but the UK government has promised to double every donation made from now until July 17.
Justine Greening, the International Development Secretary, said: ‘The worst of the Ebola crisis may be behind us, but countries like Sierra Leone and Liberia continue to feel its impact. The epidemic closed schools and forced children out of education. Many are yet to return.
‘By doubling donations to Street Child’s ‘Girls Speak Out’ appeal we will help as many as 20,000 children, mainly vulnerable girls, return to and stay in school and get access to essentials they’ve asked for, like desks, books and trained teachers.’
- Street Child’s Girls Speak Out appeal aims to ensure that girls’ voices are heard and their issues confronted. The appeal hopes to raise a minimum of £1million to help 20,000 children gain a quality education and the chance to stay in school. All donations until 17th July 2016 will be doubled by the UK government. Visit Street Child to support the appeal.
