In this photo blog, Liberia’s health workers talk about their experience during the Ebola epidemic and their hopes on returning to work.
Text & photography: World Health Organization / Melissa Winkler
In the aftermath of Liberia’s Ebola epidemic, thousands of health workers are going back to their jobs, after a health crisis that devastated their lives and livelihoods. Whether clinicians or cleaners, they were unprepared and unprotected. They lost colleagues and loved ones. They watched the fragile health system they were a part of collapse. Many battled isolation, fear and stigma, but soldiered on, caring for the sick at tremendous risk. Now they return to work in a changed country that is striving to rebuild and strengthen its health services, while keeping Ebola at bay.
To support that effort, Liberia’s Ministry of Health teamed up with the World Health Organization to create a specialised post-Ebola training programme for health workers. It aims to improve and build important case management skills and infection prevention practices, while giving health workers the tools to respond should Ebola resurface. In this photo series, I meet Liberian health workers taking part in the pilot training programme in Lofa County, and hear their views on returning to work after Ebola.
