My experiences could have been very different and I was
lucky to find myself with the King’s Sierra Leone Partnership. They were in
Sierra Leone long before Ebola and will stay long afterwards so they have
unique relationships with key stakeholders in the healthcare system. I was also lucky to be there relatively early
in the epidemic when holding centres were still being set up and I had the
opportunity to be involved from early in the process. This brought its own
challenges also many rewards.
The challenges for West Africa are far from over of course.
First they need to finish off this epidemic which will be easier said than
done. The current figures suggest over 20,000 infections and more than 7,000
deaths so far. In Sierra Leone alone at least 5,000 children have lost one or
both parents and well over 100 front line healthcare workers have died. These
numbers will continue to rise but hopefully at some point they will stop. Then
will come the rebuilding phase, hopefully the two phases will actually overlap.
There will be much to do. Schools, colleges and universities need to re-open,
tourists need to be encouraged back and the healthcare system will need a major
overhaul. I could see myself being part of that process at some point as I have
been so taken by this country and its people, we shall see.
A wise woman once told me that you know you have met the
right person if you can’t bare the thought of not marrying them. I see some
parallels here. Of course I could bare not coming to Sierra Leone but I
wouldn’t have liked it much and I would surely have been envious of those who
had come. Time will tell if it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity but it’s hard
to imagine history repeating itself in quite the same way so for me now there
is just the final pleasure of travelling which is to return home.
Thanks to everyone who has read this blog. Feel free to
leave comments and I will get back to you.
Tom