The Philadelphia Ethical Society hosts Welbodi Sierra Leone Founder Dr. Hannah Lawman for a discussion about ethical considerations in responding to the 2014-2015 Ebola epidemic.
A Priceless Tomorrow
by Ryan Coffman
One of the most formative experiences of my life was serving as a US Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 2002 to 2004. This was a particularly turbulent time both personally and globally. Looking back, I had become a self-absorbed person who was more focused on socializing with friends and what concert I’d just attended, rather than contributing to the betterment of my community. From a global perspective, this was just one year after 9/11 with the subsequent Iraq invasion actually occurring during my time in Kenya. All that’s to say that I had arrived in Kenya at a time when I wanted to and needed to re-evaluate what was truly important.
In the over ten years since my Peace Corps service, I have reflected often on the many lasting lessons that this experience had instilled in me. The strong bonds of community that I observed. Countless cross-cultural encounters, ranging from the humorous to the extremely thought provoking, that I was a part of. The inexhaustible hospitality and welcome for a guest that I received. The difference between self-identified need and want for something.
Kenyan school children
Few lessons have endured more over the years after my service concluded than the earnest desire and devotion for education and further learning that Kenyans possessed. To see school children walking miles to school in the morning and evening or studying by the dim light of the kerosene lamp was a sight I witnessed on countless occasions. Sadly, so was the heartbreak and frustration of a student who wanted nothing more than to go to their next grade or course but lacked the resources to do so.
Acting out a shopping cart in the village I lived in
This lack of resources to seek education was not something I was familiar with. All of my life, when I wanted to attend private or public school all that I needed was made readily available to me whether this included books, tuition, supplies or uniforms.
Education had become something I had taken for granted. When I wanted clothes, school supplies, transportation, even to attend a private secondary school, these resources where there in my family and in my country for the asking. I, like most children in the United States I knew, had even faked a fever to stay home from school and watch TV for the day. Children in Kenya would walk miles to school with malaria for the opportunity to learn.
“The rallying of an entire country, from capital to rural village, for the opportunity to learn was like nothing I had ever seen and will stay with me always.”
This was never more apparent than in 2003 when former Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki abolished all school fees across the country. This resulted in an unprecedented flood of 1.3 million new Kenyan children and adults, including some seniors, who returned to school to continue or begin their education. The rallying of an entire country, from capital to rural village, for the opportunity to learn was like nothing I had ever seen and will stay with me always.
There is no such policy for the children of Sierra Leone who yearn just as much for the prospect of education as the children of Kenya and face many of the same hurdles. By supporting the mission of Wellbodi Sierra Leone to nourish healthy minds and healthy bodies, you can help bring the opportunity to learn within reach for Sierra Leone’s children and future. You can give a priceless tomorrow to the girls of Sierra Leone.
You can provide a scholarship to the girls of Sierra Leone with a donation here.
Learn more about Welbodi Sierra Leone's work providing scholarships to girls here.
The Huntress of Ebola
By Douglas Weigelt
In Sierra Leone women from all over the country saved countless lives with their expertise and ingenuity in the fields of medicine, epidemiology and allied healthcare during the Ebola epidemic. These women are rare, because many young girls are never afforded the opportunity to attend secondary school. Many of the schools are private and require resources that many girls are not afforded and circumstance like early pregnancies and socio-economic circumstances leave women behind. But when girls have the opportunity to succeed they make a big difference, so much so that they can change everything. I’m about to tell you about a women who I had the pleasure of meeting, briefly, but her story will forever live with me. Her name is Ishata, and she was a huntress of Ebola.
I met Ishata a month after I had been in Sierra Leone, where I was put on a case in the Kaffu Bullum district. A cluster of Ebola had been reported there and we needed to stop it. I walked into this dusty building where the air was thick with humidity and you could hear the deep-gulled croaks of bull frogs outside the windows. After we sat down for the morning’s updates, Ishata stood up and commanded the room. She was the local expert – intelligent, astute, and operational. When she gave orders in the community, they were followed – whether the followers were doctors, soldiers or tribal leaders. Ishata was a soldier on a mission - to hunt Ebola into extinction.
Upon getting to know her more, I had found out that Ishata’s husband was a medical doctor in Sierra Leone who became ill and died during the start of the epidemic in 2014. Then her baby fell ill and died, leaving Ishata all alone. My heart sunk in sadness for her and for all of the others in Sierra Leone who were left in a similar situation. However, Ishata did not let it stop her. She would not let Ebola win; it was her enemy and she would stop at nothing to end it.
So that’s what she did, she defeated it.
“Well, if you’re not fully utilizing half the talent in the country, you’re not going to get too close to the top.”
I’m telling you this story because it would have ended very differently if Ishata hadn’t been able to get an education and become the amazing, skillful epidemiologist she is today. The country would have suffered more in a time of an emergency. Bill Gates once said in a 2007 speech about economic success “Well, if you’re not fully utilizing half the talent in the country, you’re not going to get too close to the top”. He was highlighting the global issue of disenfranchised women and their diminished potential for success. In many parts of the world, women do not have the same civic, social and educational rights as men. This second-class status prevents half the human family from improving their personal lives as well as from fully contributing to their families, communities and countries. But empowering women through education doesn’t just advance individual aspirations or improve national and global economies – it saves lives.
For us to help empower our world we need to empower all. The girls of Sierra Leone need your help, because every day a huntress like Ishata is born and we need to empower her to be the superhero she can be.
Another Ishata.
Learn more about Welbodi Sierra Leone's work providing scholarships to girls here.
You can provide a scholarship to the next Ishata with a donation here.
Meet Mary and the Titus Family
by Casey Bryson
In the spring of 2014 Chief Titus Kamara of Talent Town in Makeni, opened up his home to me while I lived in Sierra Leone. He was also the headmaster of the school I was to be teaching at. While I lived there his wife Mary, and five sons took care of my every need. They fed me, protected me, showed me around the city, and took me in as one of their brothers. I had an invitation to intimately see how a Sierra Leonian family worked.
Chief Titus was an educator as well. He taught mathematics at the same school, but also at the end of each long, hard day of work, he would sit his five boys down and teach them a lesson that they would later use in life. One night it was a lesson on writing a business letter; the next could be adding fractions. He was a leader of his household, his community and a firm believer that education was important to advance their country. Even during the school breaks, young children from the village would come to the Titus house to be taught by one of the Titus brothers, shown in the picture above. This family all had a passion for spreading education.
In August 2014 Chief Titus was on his way back to Makeni from a teachers' conference in Magburka, and another motorist did not see him on his motorcycle. They collided. His family rushed him to a doctor in Freetown, a three hour drive. He died later that night in his sleep from his injuries. He left behind five sons, the youngest was ten years-old, a wife, and a granddaughter named Mary.
Mary was only two at the time, but since Titus was the breadwinner of the family, they no longer had an income to provide for them, purchase school uniforms, or pay tuition for the children's schooling. The community aided the family with food and other basic needs. They had their own farm which helped supply their own food. But they would never be able to afford the extra cost of school. So at the age of just two years old, little Mary had dismal chances to ever go to school or become anything more than a housekeeper under her future husband's reign. When she turned five last year, her father David, now the leader of the family and the eldest son of Titus, contacted me asking for help to purchase a school uniform and help with tuition. After all their family had done for me I could not say no, but I was worried about my own finances. I was a recent graduate and a new teacher with financial struggles of my own. When I asked how much it would be, he told me a little over two hundred dollars would cover both. My reaction was, "I can't afford two hundred a month!" That is when I found out this one time donation would cover her entire first year of school. My family and I got together and sent the scholarship, and now Mary is learning every day, and her future is bright.
You can see a photo of Mary on her first day of school in her new uniform. For roughly the price of a couple pairs of shoes or a couple date nights, I was able to provide a stable education for a young lady who faced adversity at such a young age; who started life in a deficit when it came to opportunity. When she completes her education, who knows what she will be capable of?
