THE SON of Lord Richard Dannatt, the former head of the British Army, has warned that Ebola has created a generation of orphans forced into desperate measures to fend for themselves after the disease claimed their parents.
Tom Dannatt said many of the thousands of children stricken by the virus have turned to crime and prostitution simply to care for their siblings and called on the international community to help their plight.
A report by the Street Child charity, founded by Mr Dannatt, has for the first time documented the shocking extent of the Ebola orphan crisis. Its researchers, who surveyed every district in Sierra Leone, found: Þ More than 12,023 children have been orphaned by Ebola in Sierra Leone. Þ An estimated 25,000 have been orphaned across West Africa as a whole. Þ Around 17 per cent of them live in a household with five or more other orphans. Þ The orphans have an average age of nine. Þ Nearly 60 per cent live in isolated rural settings, making it hard for aid workers to reach them.
Street Child, which has provided counselling, education,
Tom Dannatt: appeal for help
housing and employment support for around 11,000 children, found many of the orphans have not only experienced immediate problems such as hunger, but have also been stigmatised by their wider community.
Such is the fear of infection in Sierra Leone’s small towns and villages that neighbours are shunning the children of the dead, ignoring the longestablished African tradition of taking orphans into your home.
The charity found that orphans are also at increased risk of physical and sexual abuse and teenage pregnancy.
Mr Dannatt, whose father is a patron of Street Child, said that although the spread of the disease appeared to be under control – having killed more than 3,500 in Sierra Leone alone – it has left thousands of child victims in its wake.
He said the report showed the “scale and nature of the crisis”, with thousands of children losing a caregiver on whom they depended.
The situation for girls is particularly desperate, warns the charity.
It found cases of Ebola orphans being raped, becoming pregnant and turning to prostitution. Others had agreed to marry at a very young age simply to find an alternative family.
The charity called on the international community to step up its response to the crisis, which has killed more than 10,000 in west Africa, and increase the amounts of help it supplies, particularly for children.
Mr Dannatt, who founded Street Child in 2008, said: “It now appears possible to believe that an end to Ebola is near, and that the time for rebuilding, and in particular helping those who have lost the most, has come.”
He praised the work of the British Army in helping the west African country cope with Ebola, describing it as “the catalyst towards creating a turning point in the crisis”.