Download Chosan Kef’s “Find The Cure (4 Ebola)” featuring Miss Sierra Leone 2014 & Miss West Africa UK http://bit.ly/1y6q4eY
My friend and rap artist Chosan Kef was born in Sierra Leone, raised in Great Britain and now lives and works in the Bronx, NY. I met Chosan through my wife, SusieQ Wong. I’d greatly appreciate your help in assisting Chosan in getting his song airplay and publicity as we work to keep focus on fighting the scourge of Ebola and finding a cure.
This is why Chosan has written and performed Find The Cure (4 Ebola):
http://news.sky.com/story/1407199/ebola-we-cant-dig-graves-quickly-enough
There is a thin red string that separates the people who could be carrying the deadly Ebola virus.
Nearly 50 people who lived here have already been taken to hospital with Ebola symptoms – 10 have died. Now their relatives, friends and everyone they came in contact with have effectively been put under house arrest for 21 days – the Ebola incubation period.
When we see them it is only day six of their quarantine and tempers are already fraying. They haven’t been allowed to shop or farm – so they are hungry and angry.
The scale of this scourge is evident at the Kingtom burial site – run by the Irish charity Concern. They dig 50 graves a day and still often can’t keep up with the demand. By the end of the day, all the graves will be filled.
Trevor Jessome from Concern says he’s only been in Sierra Leone for two weeks. He points to rows and rows of graves.
“These burials here have all been done in the last two weeks,” he says. “We average about 50 a day.”
They can’t clear this former dump quickly enough to cope with the dead. Unsafe burials of Ebola victims are believed to be responsible for up to 70% of new infections – so now every death is treated like an Ebola death. The authorities don’t wait for confirmation.
The burial teams suit up to protect themselves but the danger is never far from their thoughts.
Every body the authorities retrieve is double wrapped and sealed in thick plastic bags with copious disinfectant used.
Sierra Leone hasn’t resorted to cremations like neighbouring Liberia – they are disliked on cultural grounds – and people continue to prepare and bury their loved ones themselves – in secret – to avoid what they see as this indignity.
Alongside the graves, the burial teams disinfect, burn and then bury all their outer layers of protective clothing. They know with all their precautions the risk has been greatly reduced – but they go through this procedure about eight times a day and complacency could mean contamination.
It has taken just eight days for a huge number of tiny graves to build up that are all babies or toddlers. A stick represents a body and some graves have multiple sticks to one mound. The charity estimates there have been about 300 babies buried here in just over a week.
“When I first came here I was like, ‘Wow, this is overwhelming,'” says Mr Jessome, “But now I am having to get used to it. You have to, to carry on in Sierra Leone.”
