Thousands of Children Orphaned, Rejected As Ebola Wrecks Families

Screen capture from YouTube video.

By David Lewis and Stephanie Nebehay
Two days after his mother died of Ebola at a clinic in the Liberian capital Monrovia last month, four-year-old John was put into foster care so he could be monitored for the disease.

John's new guardian, an Ebola survivor, was immune to the deadly virus and happy to look after him. But when neighbors heard of the plan, they refused to allow them home fearing the boy might infect them too.

John's case highlights the plight of some 3,700 children in West Africa that have lost one or both parents to Ebola and now face abandonment and stigma, according to U.N. child agency UNICEF. The figure could double by mid-October, it said.

The Abandoned Children of the Liberia Ebola Outbreak

Children represent just 15 percent of the recorded 3,091 Ebola deaths recorded mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, below the proportion of the population they represent, according to World Health Organization (WHO) statistics.

But that number masks the broader impact the disease is having on children. Fear of contagion means many orphans, even those who test negative, are being abandoned.

The dangerous nature of the disease means aid workers are having to rethink how they look after them.

"In some communities, the fear surrounding Ebola is becoming stronger than family ties," said UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa Manuel Fontaine.

"These children urgently need special attention and support; yet many of them feel unwanted and even abandoned."

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