Ebola crisis

In March 2014, the largest ever outbreak of the deadly Ebola disease spread across West Africa. The worst-affected countries were Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

Ebola is much more than a medical issue; it affected the economy, education and healthcare systems and soon escalated into a humanitarian crisis.  

• Worldwide, there have been 28,646 cases of Ebola virus disease.
• In total, 11,323 people died from the disease.
• 3,956 people died from Ebola in Sierra Leone.

Our immediate emergency response included:

• providing powdered chlorine to disinfect health centres
• training more than 9,000 health volunteers who reached 50,000 households across Sierra Leone with key advice to prevent Ebola transmission
• providing food and other essentials to those in quarantine.

As part of our vital recovery work, we’ve been:

• supporting local organisations in Sierra Leone to restore health units and improve water and sanitation facilities, particularly in rural areas
• helping Ebola survivors to rebuild their lives by providing livestock and veterinary services, seeds, farming tools and vocational training
• training faith leaders so they can offer counselling to their communities
• supporting orphans who've lost their parents to Ebola, offering psychological help and provision of essentials.