Young people played a game-changing role in the battle against Ebola in Liberia

THE GUARDIAN   by  Ashoka Mukpo                               April 24, 2015

 MONROVIA, Liberia -- Archie Gbessay, 28, stands at an intersection in Monrovia’s West Point neighbourhood next to a stall where mobile-phone recharge scratch cards are sold. Across the street is a school that, in August 2014, became the focus of Liberia’s Ebola crisis. It was being used as a holding centre for Ebola victims when enraged residents broke through its iron gate and released patients.

Youngsters in the township of West Point take a leading role in the effort to bring the Ebola outbreak in Liberia under control. Photograph: Ahmed Jallanzo/EPA

Now empty, it is being renovated to be used again as a school. The military quarantine imposed on West Point after the residents’ raid seems far away, as does the atmosphere of fear that enveloped Liberia. The country has made remarkable progress in the fight against Ebola. ..

For many experts the efforts of community volunteers like Gbessay have played a critical role in halting Ebola’s spread. As deaths mounted in August and September, residents in some of Liberia’s hardest-hit neighbourhoods organised groups that searched for Ebola cases, battling denial of the virus and sharing information with Liberian health officials....

Gbessay and a few friends established their informal group in August when the epidemic began to overwhelm the Liberian government’s response. “We felt that if we did nothing, we would be judged for our actions,” he says.
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http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/apr/15/young-people-ebola-liberia-game-changers-monrovia-diseases