St George Foundation Helping Orphaned and Homeless Children from the Ebola Outbreak
According to the World Health Organization, the number of people who have succumbed to the Ebola Outbreak in West Africa has reached more than 6,800. It is also emerging that Sierra Leone has overtaken Liberia that was previously leading in the numbers of casualty deaths from the Ebola virus.
There are cases where parents die and leave their children behind with no one to fend for them. Thus, there is a growing number of orphaned and homeless children in Sierra Leone. One organization dubbed St George Foundation has taken it upon itself to care for these children. The organization provides them with a place of shelter, counseling and help them trace their remaining relatives.
The organization is working in partnership with the Sierra Leone government and UNICEF. According to the organization, it costs about £200 ($313) per child, that goes into the expenditure of helping a child recover from the Ebola virus, give them counseling and trace their remaining relatives.
The St George Foundation was founded by one Philip Dean back in 2004 during Sierra Leone’s civil war. The foundation cared for the orphaned kids that were the result of the country’s civil war.
As cited by BBC, Dean said, “The children come to us weak, needing recuperation, highly traumatized and in shock… They come with no possessions, as everything contaminated has been destroyed.”
Dean goes further to describe the dilapidated medical facilities in the Capital Freetown. The normal medical services in hospitals in Freetown have completely come to a standstill ever since the Ebola outbreak. This has stopped any kind of medical treatment to be administered.
For more information about this not-for-profit organization and perhaps how to lend a hand in their quest to care for orphaned and homeless children, follow this link to their website.
