Ebola outbreak – interview with Alpha Sesay, Safe and dignified burial team leader, Sierra Leone Red Cross Society
Two years following the declaration of an Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa, communities and governments in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone are moving into the recovery phase, determined to make their countries stronger before Ebola decimated families, economies and health care systems.
Through its five pillared response, the IFRC, in support of the three affected National Societies, played a key role in helping to bring the outbreak to an end. Thousands of volunteers were involved in contact tracing, case management, beneficiary communications and social mobilization, psychosocial support, and safe and dignified burials (SDB).
Teams were stigmatized and discriminated against, and were often on the receiving end of verbal and physical violence by communities, scared and unsure of what was happening.
Alpha Sesay, 23, was one of the first Red Cross volunteers to be trained in SDB in Kailahun district, the epicentre of the outbreak in Sierra Leone. A Red Cross volunteer before the outbreak, Alpha says he signed up for the extremely risky task of providing SDBs, because no one else was. Below, an interview with Alpha.
TRANSCRIPT:
ALPHA SESAY, 23, SAFE AND DIGNIFIED BURIAL TEAM LEADER, KAILAHUN DISTRICT, SIERRA LEONE
00:00 Before Ebola, I was a volunteer with the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society. Then, we got this outbreak in Sierra Leone and, at the initial stage, there was no other person to do the burial. So, we, the volunteers, decided to do the burials because there was no other person to do it.
00:29 Through the training, I got the confidence that I can do the job safely, without infection.
Answering question about how he felt doing so many burials daily
00:36 Very discouraging. But we continue doing it, because even if I said, because people are dying, 10 a day, 5 a day, the death rate is very high so that I am afraid, I will not do the burial. I think there would be no other person to do it.
Answering question about outbreak being over (this was shortly after outbreak was declared ended in the country on 7 November 2015 and before new cases surfaced in January. Alpha’s district, Kailahun, the former epi-centre, has not had any new cases)
00:57 My reaction? Hey, very excited. And even now, I am very, very much happy.
01:05 Before joining the burial team, when I heard about the disease, I was afraid, I was thinking that I would die.
01:13 But with fate and good training, today I am safe.
01:20 At first, I was really having problem with them, with my family members, the community members, but as time goes on, they too have the confidence that I can do the job without no infection. And then the problem stopped.
01:38 At first, at first when they realized that I am part of the burial team, they drove me (away), but by then, I was with my friend. I sleep with my friend.
01:52 At 11 something p.m., I got a call from my friend. He just told, he just asked me not to sleep with him in the room. I asked, ‘What do you mean by that?’. This time is too late, asking me to leave your room, not to sleep with you. I make an apology (request) to him that, let him spare me for the night, so the next morning, I would find another place. But still he refused. He will not accommodate me anymore. (Alpha met a fellow volunteer who had also been kicked out, and they went to the market area to sleep that night. They found another place to stay the next day)
02:24 It was not really easy with us. Our name was circulated all over this district because we are doing burials.
02:32 They were totally afraid of me. When I pass in the street, people do point at me, I’m this, I’m that. I do have quarrels with people back then when they are stigmatizing at me. Anywhere I go, people go ‘this man is from burial team’. It was not really easy with me by then.
(Talking about being driven away by friends)
02:52 He said I should not contaminate his family, because I’m already contaminated. If I’m part of the burial team, he would not allow me to mingle with his family because people are saying ‘You should not touch an infected person’. So if I decided to go and touch a dead person of Ebola, so he will not accept me. (Says he remained on his own, until the Red Cross decided to rent a guest house for SDB workers)
(What kind of names did people call you?)
03:16 Ebola, that was the name they gave us. Alpha Ebola. Wherever you go by then, they will call you Ebola. Those Ebola boys are coming. That boy is part of a burial team. So they do stigmatize at us. It was not really easy with us.
(What do they call you now?)
03:35 Now? Alpha (with laughter).
(How did you use the financial incentive, and danger pay that you received for being a member of the burial team?)
03:42 At first, I was saving the money. I was saving part of the money. Paying house rent. Feeding myself. Clothes, have some affairs with the money. So, when my parents are aware that I’ve saved, all of them embrace me again.
04:09 So when I’m doing the job, now having money, they will expect much from me. Even if you can see this house. We maintain this house through that money. Because by then, when I started doing this job, we are not having this type of house by then. So, through the job, we are able to maintain this house.
04:33 Then, I have a lot of family members. And as soon as they’re aware that I am working, I’m having money now, all of them are expecting something from me. Calling me ‘Alpha, I’m not feeling okay, Alpha I’m not having food at home, Alpha my child is sick’.
04:40 They abandoned me, but I have forgiven them, so I still have to do good for them. Even today as I’m talking, I’ve sent money to my elder sister in Kenema.
05:02 I have a great concern about my future. I have been thinking that with the job I will be saving money. I have all these intentions. But, it is very difficult for me due to the type of family affairs that are facing me now.
05:22 I have been thinking to continue with my education. Then I’m thinking that I should do a business. If I decide to continue the education, because I was a school-going people before the Ebola came, but I became a dropout before the Ebola.
05:45 Whenever we work during the night, I do have some night dreams, some terriblenight dreams. I will have dreams, ghosts running after me, chasing me.
06:02 Our family so much relies on us, due to the money we have been having, submitting all their problems to us. So now the work, although we are praying to God that this disaster will go to an end, praise to God, it is the end, it has totally ended, I will not be praying for it again. But really we are having a problem now, financial problem with our family members for they strongly rely on us now, so that is another issue.
06:40 ENDS