Greg Duly
Country Director
Liberia
February 18, 2015
After more than six months of closure, Save the Children has been at the forefront of ensuring that schools across Liberia can safely open for attendance. Save the Children & Unicef led the development of what the Liberian Ministry of Education adopted as national school opening protocols. These protocols map out basic but essential criteria that ensure children and teachers can return to school without the fear of contracting Ebola.
Additionally, Save the Children has taken on responsibility for the delivery of essential materials and training of teachers, principles, and PTA members in how to use the kits at 932 schools, which accounts for more than 20% of Liberian schools.
To date, we have completed training at 532 schools and 783 schools have received the essential materials which include a range of infection prevention and control items such as buckets, chlorine, soap, mops, brooms, thermometers and such.
This is an excellent start to getting children back to school, but we are very mindful of the fact that Ebola has still not been eradicated and that much needs to be done to “get to zero.” Even once Ebola has been eliminated there will be much work to do to help restore health, education and child protection systems that have been decimated by the epidemic.
I’m confident that with the help of organizations like Save the Children, Liberians will be able to eradicate their country from this vicious disease that has wreaked havoc on the country. It’s just a matter of time.
To learn more about our Ebola response, click here.
