Before young children in Guinea started contracting Ebola, few people in the wider world had given much thought to basic health care in rural West Africa. Before the worst outbreak of the highly contagious hemorrhagic fever, it would have been very difficult to raise funds to train local health workers to detect its symptoms and know how to prevent its spread.
It has now become evident that even the most basic local preparation and access to accurate information could have limited the ferocious spread of the virus.
Ordinary people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have responded to the crisis with humanity and devotion, often unaware of the fatal consequences of caring for the sick. They could have been better prepared.
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About the author
Degan Ali
Degan Ali is the executive director of Adeso, where she leads development and humanitarian efforts. Degan is a strategic thinker with over 15 years experience designing and managing food security, livelihoods, and water, sanitation and hygiene programs in some of the poorest, most fragile countries in Africa. Under her leadership, Adeso has become a pioneer in using cash programming to deliver aid to vulnerable populations.
