Whenever Jerkis Mahamba hears a child cry out in the Ebola ward in Butembo, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, he puts on protective gear and rushes \u200bto their side. He has a very good idea of what they are going through.<\/p>\n
Mahamba caught the highly infectious disease \u200chimself in September and recovered after 18 days of treatment at the same centre. His ordeal gave him immunity from the strain of the virus coursing through Congo, meaning he can work with young patients when their own parents aren’t allowed to touch them.”<\/p>\n
Sometimes the children need a hug. Sometimes they want to be rocked back to \u200bsleep. Sometimes they want to talk.<\/p>\n
‘I WENT THROUGH THIS TOO’<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI introduce myself and tell them, I went through this too. I ask \u200bthem not to lose hope,” the 29-year-old told Reuters at the hospital in the city’s Kitatumba neighbourhood.<\/p>\n He remembers \u2060what it was like, vomiting, refusing to eat, struggling to take medication.<\/p>\n He still has to wear protective gear and disinfect his clothes so he \u200bdoes not carry the virus out of the ward. But he can get in close, armed with his immunity and his empathy.<\/p>\n “I pick them up, \u200band then gradually try to settle them back into bed,” Mahamba said.<\/p>\n “Once they are lying down, I find games or activities to keep them occupied and help them get used to staying in bed. When they eventually fall asleep, I can then leave the room.\u201d<\/p>\n Often, relatives are looking on through a glass window behind him. “Our \u200blove for our children is very strong,” one child’s uncle, Kambale Syavula Volont\u00e9, said, frustrated that he couldn’t get any closer.<\/p>\n Before he caught the \u200bvirus from a relative, Mahamba scraped a living selling school supplies on the streets of Butembo, one of the epicentres of the epidemic \u2014 the second-largest on record \u2014 \u200cclose to \u2060the border with Uganda.<\/p>\n After his recovery, the charity M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res hired him to work in the hospital and join a growing band of survivors on the frontline of the outbreak.<\/p>\n Many work in the wards as patients’ friends, playmates and supporters. Others take on important jobs cleaning and disinfecting rooms and equipment.<\/p>\n Some also work outside, visiting villages and far-flung communities, trying to dispel the misinformation and stigmas building up around the outbreak, said Dr \u200bToussaint Selemani, head of the MSF-run \u200bcentre.<\/p>\n Unfounded rumours that the epidemic \u2060is part of a foreign plot, or that health workers are spreading the disease, have led to real violence.<\/p>\n Late last month, youths armed with machetes attacked two community health workers who were raising awareness about the outbreak, killing \u200bone and wounding the other.<\/p>\n “At the community level, a survivor can become a powerful ambassador in the fight \u200bagainst the disease,” \u2060Selemani said. “Their testimony helps combat fear and stigma and can encourage people with symptoms to seek care promptly at a treatment centre.”<\/p>\n Mahamba also works outside the centre. He remembers how scared and distrustful he felt as the disease spread and friends fell ill around him.<\/p>\n He now shows people photos of himself when \u2060he was \u200bill and encourages them to protect themselves.<\/p>\n But the bulk of his time is spent \u200bin the hospital, working with families and listening out for the children’s cries in the isolation wards.<\/p>\n “Patients in isolation may be stressed and afraid of dying,” Selemani said. “When they meet \u200bsomeone who has gone through the same ordeal and survived, it can restore hope.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whenever Jerkis Mahamba hears a child cry out in the Ebola ward in Butembo, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, he puts on protective gear and rushes \u200bto their side. He has a very good idea of what they are going through. Mahamba caught the highly infectious disease \u200chimself in September and recovered after 18 days […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":22370,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":6,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,2362,2854],"tags":[5605,3016,75],"class_list":["post-22508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-africa","category-featured","category-health","tag-butembo","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo-drc","tag-ebola"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22509,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22508\/revisions\/22509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}