By Umaru Fofana
Ibrahim, not his real name, stood at Bolling Street which - in normal times - splits the Kingtom cemetery between Muslims and Christians, freshly bathed. Like his other half a dozen or so colleagues. It was approaching 6:00 PM. His day's duty was ending. It looked as if he was having a second bath - this time with chlorine and other disinfectants. They looked cheerful - despite the gut-wrenching job they do for a living.
Ibrahim and his colleagues are members of the Burial Team - those who collect dead bodies of Ebola victims, dig their graves and bury them in body bags in mass graves. "People fear us" he told me, giggling, as he rubbed his hands with more chlorine. "They think we have Ebola" the articulate Ibrahim - in his late 20s - told me. "We are very Ebola-free" he told me.
He opened the back of the makeshift ambulance, and showed me their personal protection equipment. "This makes us very safe," he said, "we try hard not to make any mistakes.
"Not a single member of the Burial Teams has contracted the virus" another of Ibrahim's colleagues said - boastfully. Rather philosophically he went on: "We are being very careful because if any one of us gets Ebola we will all be in trouble because we play together". I even understand there is a female member of the team.
I had gone to the Kingtom cemetery with some of my BBC colleagues - among them a biochemist who determined where and what to step on, what to do before we got there, during our stay and after filming.
Recently these gravediggers in Freetown and Western Area Rural went on strike over non-payment of their Le 500,000 hazard allowances. During my investigations I learned many things that made me feel sorry for these selfless patriots of ours clearing the mess of Ebola, and sick of the corruption that could be going on in the ministry of health or their appendages - just at this level of the burial.
My investigations show that there were 11 Burial Teams in the Western Area - Rural and Urban. Each of them comprises 12 people. That totals 132 people who should be paid. One of the vouchers I saw had 186 names on it under Burial Teams. And there's someone who gets paid Le 40 million for "Coordination". I can't recall whether it is weekly or monthly. Whatever it is it begs many questions.
But back to the Burial Teams who have been - and are still being - vilified and physically attacked. Many of them have been evicted from their homes by their landlords or landladies. Some have been taunted by their peers who nevertheless call them when they have a corpse in their family. What hypocrisy! If you think they are not good at all and are the scum of the earth why call them for assistance at all! It is the way of the Sierra Leonean - they only value you when they derive direct benefit from you. Otherwise...
One of the burial team members called later to inform me about their goggles. "They are recyclable but should not be too recyclable" he told me rather philosophically, saying they sometimes used them for days.
At a time like this when Ebola deaths are spiking and new infection rates are skyrocketing, we cannot afford to anger the Burial Teams. Five months into the outbreak October has so far recorded one-third of the total number of Ebola deaths in the country. The epicentre has shifted from the eastern Kailahun and Kenema districts - where it all began - to the Freetown and its environs which now top the total cumulative number of confirmed cases in the country.
This is worrisome. yes because of the new infections and deaths. But also because the corpses have to be buried - and on time. Only the Burial Teams can make this happen especially in the densely-populated Freetown with squatters dotted around it and poverty and poor hygiene written everywhere with people crammed in homes.
Have we ever wondered why, despite being placed in quarantine Port Loko and Bombali are recording very grim new infection numbers. Could it be the case of what Shakespeare talks about in Macbeth - "The love that follows us sometimes is out trouble"? You wonder why it seems to be working well in Kailahun and Kenema districts.
The other day I got a call from some Catholic priests in Makeni lamenting over the poor Ebola state of affairs in Bombali in response to Ebola. The holding centres - if they qualify to be called as such - are a mess. There are no treatment centres in the entire northern province about a third of the country's land size. Throughout the country there are few treatment centres with a little over 300 beds. Thousands are said to be needed.
The United Nations Assistant Secretary General, Magdy Martinez-Soliman says 3,000 health workers are needed to respond to the outbreak in Sierra Leone alone. Even with the wonderful efforts by Cuba, China and in the last few days the African Union who have sent in medics, all of that amounts to less than a quarter of what's needed.
Hopes are now largely pinned on the British military-style medical intervention which will build 700-bed treatment centres, and provide hundreds of army and UK National Health Service volunteer medics. But that will take many more weeks. Many more weeks too many.
Among a lot of things, these drawbacks mean that many will die away from treatment centres - in homes or on the streets - making their burial more daunting for the Burial Teams. We are all familiar with stories of corpses taking days in homes - or on the streets - uncollected, further spreading the disease.
Even if everyone else derides them , I will always salute the Ebola Burial Teams. However much we pay them - like the medics in the frontline - we cannot pay them enough. Their courage should be saluted, their service acknowledged and their welfare protected. It will not be too much to ask for them to be housed by the state - where they have been evicted - and action taken against those who assault them like has been done in some cases where they have been pelted with stones and injured.
(C) Politico 14/10/14
