Monrovia – In what is seen as the first effort to bring out the untold stories of Ebola survivors in Liberia, the Emma Smith Reality show has kicked-off an advocacy project at the Golden Gate Hotel auditorium.
UNDP is funding this project in a series of radio and Television syndicated shows that seek to bring out the stories of Ebola survivors in an effort to instigate interventions from government and donor communities in ameliorating the pathetic conditions Ebola survivors are contending with.
Banjor Pinyonkosa Community Orphanage Care Giver, Madaindu Dakowah, in an interview with Emma Smith Reality Show crew, disclosed that she is fostering eleven orphans whose parents died as a result of the EVD scourge.
She said they are contending with issues of feeding, shelter, schooling and medical needs.
Madaindu expressed concern that people have been coming and collecting their stories without doing anything about the problems.
She lamented the fact that there is hardly any support from any sector and sees the Emma Smith Reality Show as a channel of reaching out to the rest of the world in soliciting assistance on behalf of Liberia’s forgotten heroes and heroines of the EVD epidemic.
It emerged from the interview that the weight of the philanthropic effort Madaindu has assumed has resulted in the breakup of her matrimony with her husband abandoning her as he could not cope with the burden of taking care of the foster children.
Madaindu used the occasion to raise concern about one of her missing wards, who absconded from the orphanage and has not returned since the past polling day.
The missing girl’s case is a reflection of the lack of adequate support in the orphanage system, forcing the orphans to prefer to get in the streets and fend for themselves.
She added that she is often overwhelmed with grief when the children come with their problem, some of which she cannot solve.
Madaindu furthered intoned: “Many people come here and collect our stories but nothing is forthcoming in support and we hope UNDP through the Emma Smith Reality Show will not be one of such groups trading on the plight of the kids.”
The Emma Smith Reality Show intersperses infotainment, side attraction performances in dance and mimes, with voices of EVD survivors, questions from audiences and scenes from across Liberia to reach officialdom and philanthropists that could cater to some of the needs of Ebola survivors, widows and children especially.
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