Monrovia – A one-day regional policy meeting center around post Ebola issues was held in Monrovia among several international and local Non-Governmental Organizations.
The meeting which held , Monrovia over the weekend together NGOs and government officials from the Mino River and Ebola affected countries, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia.
Madam Janet Adama Mohammed Conciliation resources West Africa Program Director said that the meeting was intended to look at the impacts of the Ebola virus in the affected countries so as to provide remedies in addressing these impacts.
The meeting was held under the auspices of a London based Non-Governmental Organization, Conciliation Resources in collaboration with a Liberian based civil society, Institute for Research Democracy and Development (IREDD).
Janet Adama Mohammed said: “this was a regional policy meeting where Conciliation Resources and our partners the Institute for Research Democracy and Development of Liberia, the Network Movement for Justice and Development of Sierra Leone, ABC Development of Guinea and the West Africa Network for Peace Building in Cote d’Ivoire together with other civil societies and government officials from the various countries to look that the impact of the Ebola in these countries in terms of the Ebola driven tension and how we resolve them.
Madam Mohammed in an interview with this Paper said it is her thinking that the Ebola outbreak was beyond health issues, noting that there were tensions created as the result of the Ebola which according to her affected and deepens the wounds among relationships, communities, families and citizens and their government.
Mohammed furthered that thought Ebola victims were resettled and given passages to move back into their various communities following the crisis, she noted that more need to be done than just providing humanitarian gesture but instead rebuilding the broken relationships that resulted out of the Ebola.
“Indeed there was a health crisis and this health crisis has impact on not just the affected families but also whole community but we saw that the response was around reintegration, especially in post Ebola recovery.”
“We saw that people were given logistics to go back into the community, but what we are saying is that there were broken relationship, so instead of just giving humanitarian packages to go back, let also look at reconciling the people. Reconciling the people with their community, government officials and health workers,” she added.
She disclosed that at the end of the meeting, she was optimistic that the governments of Minor River countries will be able to recognize the efforts of local peace building actors within their respective countries particularly at the various borders points.
Madam Mohammed is also appealing to government to also help in supporting actors and organizations as they go about undertaking dialogue initiatives and wish that governments would be able to prioritize some of these trending issues especially at the border point and put in policy that would be able to address them adequately.
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