Ebola leaves a painful legacy for survivors in Sierra Leone

 An Ebola survivor in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Many are being turned down at government dispensaries and asked to get medicines from private pharmacies. Photograph: Olivia Acland

Published by Olivia Acland

Thursday 28 April 2016

Take a flight of stone steps to the third floor of a narrow building in downtown Freetown and you’ll arrive at a small room with billowing purple curtains, where a group of men and women are chatting over the background noise of television news.

The peaceful atmosphere belies the suffering that has brought them together. Each of them has survived Ebola, which means they bear a double burden of social stigma coupled with painful side-effects. For those who lost loved ones in the epidemic, grief is laced with survivors’ guilt.

The headquarters of the Sierra Leonean Association of Ebola Survivors(Slaes) provides a safe space for those who withstood the disease to relax and spend time together, as well as hold meetings and conferences.

see more at: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/apr/28/ebola-survivors-sierra-leone-painful-legacy