Pictured are six of the girls stranded at June Hartranft Memorial Primary School for Girls in Sierra Leone after the country’s deadly Ebola outbreak. From left are Esther Cooper, 15; Kadiatu Juana, 10; Hawa Bayoh, 10; Ramatu Kamara, 11; Magdalene Kamara, 9; and Aminata Bayoh, 11.
PHILEAS JUSU
United Methodist News
The effects of the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa still linger at June Hartranft Memorial Primary School for Girls.
Several of the school’s boarding students face an uncertain future as authorities struggle to locate their parents nine months after Ebola ended in the country.
Just this week, the school learned that the parents of two sisters had died of Ebola.
The girls were among nine students, ranging in age from 10 to 15, who initially lost contact with their parents at the peak of the outbreak in their hometown of Kailahun, the first district affected by Ebola in May 2014. More than 11,000 people died in the Ebola outbreak, the majority of them in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, according to the World Health Organization.
At the end of that school year, Kailahun was recording the highest number of Ebola cases and deaths, according to the Rev. Jane Lahai, head teacher at June Hartranft, a United Methodist primary school for girls ages 6-12.
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Last Updated on December 28, 2022