We ask you to speak out against the violation of human rights in Ebola response. The quarantining of households/villages and towns without sufficient food supply has to stop. Food packages should be sufficient and contain nutrition and hygienic materials. Sick people should be persuaded to go to the clinic instead of coerced. Ensure a dignified burial, so that illegal burials will stop. Provide family members with counseling in the mourning process. The #Ebola epidemic is growing because the people are not encouraged to cooperate. From the appeal: If an Ebola epidemic would occur in a western country, we would see a very different response. Western countries have trauma teams, psychologists, social workers, community workers and religious key figures who would console the patients, show empathy and convince the people of their chances of survival and their responsibility towards their family members to isolate themselves. Family members would be guided through the process of sickness and mourning. Families would get visitation rights in the hospitals, patients would receive quality care and close relatives would be given the opportunity to be part of the burial process. For western countries, we can all imagine people’s need to care for the sick and to mourn the loss of loved ones. If put in isolation, people would have access to water, sanitation, hygienic materials, distraction, sufficient food and nutrition and proper monitoring of their health. For Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, we expect people to consider themselves as a health hazard and stay in isolation without access to any facility and without sufficient food supply. But the needs of Guineans, Liberians and Sierra Leoneans do not differ from those of people in western countries. They have a great need for care and empathy, especially since they are under great stress and developing traumas. By sticking to the current approach, the world is alienating itself from the people of the affected countries. You need to understand that Ebola touches the very essence of human existence. Fear of dying is universal and ought not to be criminalized. If the world does not take into account that the reactions of the people essentially stem from human nature, rather than culture, nobody will be able to reach them. Instead of asking 22 million people to change their very existence and offering their humanity to the eradication to Ebola, it will be easier, faster and more rational to change the response. Urging people to go to clinics that are dirty or non-existent has led to feelings of mistrust. People got infected with Ebola in clinics without proper management; their tragedy was discarded as ‘conspiracy theory’. Urging people to wash their hands every hour while prices of soap and chlorine skyrocketed put an overemphasis on their vulnerability. The wide gap that was created between the international community and the affected populations needs to be bridged and has to be made the -first priority on the agenda. The building of clinics, laboratories, dispatch of international health personnel, implementation of field protocols, etcetera, are all very important. The opening of clinics in every district will make it easier to do effective contact tracing and make it easier for people to visit their sick family members. But when people are afraid to be admitted to a clinic, the buildings, workers and protocols will not do anything to get the epidemic under control. Success is solely dependent on the cooperation of the people. Ebola is more than just a virus that can be isolated. Ebola feeds on human beings, and to repeat the words of the UN Rights Chief: “Only a response that is built on respect for human rights will be successful in quashing the epidemic.” Read the full appeal:
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 09:29:35 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015