Sobbing,
Lydia, 16, and her younger siblings Blessing, 11, Pauline, nine, and
Paul, five, can only watch as the body of their mother is taken away.
Dressed
in hazard suits that cover them from head to toe, the men loading the
plastic-wrapped corpse onto a truck are a grim sight.
But
they, like the plastic wrap that shrouds the body, are necessary for
Juana, 45, like thousands of others in her native Liberia, died from the
deadly Ebola virus.
Tragic: With their grandmother Sonnie, Paul, five, and Pauline, nine, watch as their mother's body is taken away
With
2,909 deaths and 6,185 cases of the disease reported in Liberia,
Nigeria, Guinea and Sierra Leone so far, Ebola orphans are, sadly, not
unusual.
But with
neighbours and extended families reluctant to take the children in for
fear of succumbing to the disease themselves, Plan International says
the future is bleak for the youngsters affected.
'The large number of
single-parent families in Liberia means that as mothers are dying from
Ebola, children lose their sole care-giver, and have no-one to look
after them,' explains Koala
Oumarou, Country Director for Plan Liberia.
'Once
their mother dies, the orphaned children have to leave school, if they
were in school in the first place.
'They are ostracised by the community,
and they have to work, to try to make a living and support themselves.'
Upsetting: Neighbours watch as men wearing head-to-toe hazard suits prepare to collect Juana's body
Grim: Health workers in hazard suits carry Juana's plastic-wrapped corpse away after her death from Ebola
Alone: With help from her grandmother, 68, Lydia, 16, will now care for her younger siblings
Ebola has
so far claimed 1,137 lives in Liberia, according to the World Health Organisation, among them
scores of single mothers who have left young families behind.
Since
the civil war that ended in 2003, the country has been plagued by
social problems, with broken, one-parent families becoming the norm, as
traumatised,
unemployed men reject marriage and family values.
Now,
according to government sources, up to 300 children are struggling to
cope after losing their mothers to the epidemic.
In
Bomi County near Monrovia, an area particularly badly affected by years of civil war, an estimated 75 per cent of women
with children are single mothers, while nationally, single parents account for fully half of the country's families.
It's
a situation that is all too familiar for Lydia, herself a single mother
of one, and her siblings, who live in the isolated village of Voijama
in northern Liberia.
With
four different fathers, none of whom are on the scene, and only their
elderly grandmother to look after them, none have much hope for the
future or faith in their extended family.
All over: As her sobbing children watch, Juana's body is loaded into a pick-up truck and driven away
Harrowing: Such is the fear in capital Monrovia, bodies of Ebola victims are sometimes left where they drop
Terrified: With 1,137 already dead from the disease in Liberia, people are becoming increasingly frightened
'We’ve not seen anyone as a father since we were born,' says the heart-breakingly grown-up Pauline, nine.
Lydia
agrees. 'We have not seen any family member before our mother died,
besides our grandmother,' she reveals.
Their
grandmother, Sonnie, 68, is doing her best to care for the children
but, well into old age, is unable to work and struggles to keep up with
her boisterous grandson.
'I will find it difficult at my age to fully cater to these children, now that I am not working again,' she admits.
'I
was one of many traditional midwives who the government forcibly
retired, on the grounds that we were illiterate. I am also too old to do
farm work or cleaning work.'
Neigbours,
terrified of succumbing to Ebola themselves, have refused to help,
which means that the bulk of the childcare now falls to Lydia, who has
had to leave school to take care of her siblings.
Ostracised: Juana's four children now face an uncertain future and have been ostracised by their neighbours
Help: The shocked and grieving children say they would like their extended family to come to their aid
And
with money tight, her younger siblings have also had to give up their
education - much to aspiring teacher Pauline's distress.
'I’d
love to be a teacher in the future like my mother once was,' she
admits, 'but with all this going on, becoming a teacher will not
happen.'
Worst of all though, is the social stigma that they now face following their mother's death. 'These
children are really stigmatised by Ebola,' adds Oumarou.
'Many families just do not
want to help them after their parents die because they are scared of
contracting the disease. But these children are in dire need of
assistance.'
'Extended
families don’t want to take care of orphans of affected parents or
other vulnerable children anymore out of fear of being contaminated or
stigmatised in the community,' adds child protection specialist, Anita Queirazza.
'Some
foster families have abandoned orphans after receiving the accompanying
food and non-food assistance, leaving the children to fend for
themselves.'
As for Lydia and her siblings, still struggling to come to terms with their mother's death, the future remains uncertain.
'I have my own responsibilities, and now
that of my little brother and sisters,' she says, adding: 'We’d be happy to have any relative
or family member come to assist us.'
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