Fr. Peter Konteh of Caritas Freetown on the Needs of Ebola Orphans

The Executive Director of Caritas Freetown (Sierra Leone) Father Peter Konteh, on Wednesday 17 June made a presentation at an event during the 29th Session of UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on the needs of orphaned children whose parents have died of the Ebola Virus Disease.

In his presentation, Fr. Konteh highlighted the challenges the Catholic church and its partners face in caring for the thousands of children who have lost one or both parents to the disease in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. According to UNICEF estimats, there 16,600 such children in the sub region.

The Catholic priest from the Archdiocese of Freetown said the overall situation of child survival and development before the outbreak of Ebola was not good. Infant mortality and child malnutrition, he said, were high in the three worst affected countries. Fr. Konteh noted that the Ebola outbreak led to the closure of schools for the better part of the academic year and also disrupted vaccination schedules. The virus also caused the collapse of the health infrastructure and limited use of health services in those countries, as well as an increase in teenage pregnancy and child-headed households.

Many people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone could not afford basic commodities and services at the height of the crisis, the head of Caritas Freetown told his audience.

After enumerating some of the strong psychological challenges facing the orphans, such as witnessing the death of one or more family members, rejection and stigmatization, he called for a quicker response to help the children cope and adjust well when they return to their communities.

He also presented the good practices undertaken by the church and its partners for the support of such orphans. They include: foster care, adoption, residential child care facilities and the most common in the region, kingship care, under which a child lives with their extended family members or close family friends.

He however warned that children in such care should be protected against exploitation, abuse and neglect.

To help Ebola orphans, Fr. Peter Konteh recommended that interventions on livelihoods be made a matter of urgency. He also called for the revival of functional healthcare and rebuild public trust in health services, as well as the need to pay particular attention to adolescent girls.

The side event was jointly hosted by Caritas Internationalis and the Permanent Missions to the UN in Geneva of Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea.

(by Festus Tarawalie)