When we talk about Ebola, we often concentrate on the numbers: 5,800 confirmed cases, a projected 550,000 by January, and more than 2,800 deaths. But, as these images from Liberia-based organization More than Me show, there are real women and children behind the facts and figures. These 21 photos remind us that they're suffering tremendous pain, coping with loss, and carrying on buoyed by moments of hope—that in spite of and with Ebola, there are people living. Meet more of the girls here, and support More Than Me here.
This is 6-year-old Miatta. Her dad and baby sister have died, and her mother and other siblings are sick. Because she's healthy, she has to stay home with no one to care for her. More Than Me took her in to watch her for 21 days in isolation. The next day, she started showing symptoms and had to be taken to an Ebola treatment unit for testing.
Seatta is a tracer: After a sick person has been identified, she identifies the people whom the patient has come into contact with and isolates them for 21 days. She's 20 and knows her job is risky.
More Than Me staff pose at the school in front of their new ambulance. It is running thanks to philanthropist Jim Greenbaum, and picks up patients in West Point to take them to Ebola treatment units.
Celebrating the quarantine of West Point being lifted! Dancing in the street at 6 a.m.
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Katie Meyler, founder and CEO of More Than Me, shows people in the Capital Hill neighborhood of Monrovia how to mix bleach and water to create an effective disinfectant for washing hands.
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Her brother is at an Ebola treatment unit. She wants to go and see him, even if she has to die to do it.
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As the awareness workers leave their seminar, a doctor stands outside of the Star of the Sea clinic in West Point with a newborn baby. In the face of the virus, life carries on.
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At the Star of the Sea clinic, a doctor teaches children who gather around about the Ebola virus and how they can be a part of containing its spread.
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Krubo, More Than Me's social worker, carries water to a sick woman in West Point.
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A woman peeks out to thank the awareness team for bringing supplies to her sick neighbor.
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Meet Pearlina, a 3-year-old girl whose mom died of suspected Ebola in the ambulance on the way to the treatment center. She had nowhere to go, so More Than Me took her into their guest house to be quarantined for 21 days. MTM provided her with new clothes, food, water, toys, and daily health check-ups.
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Fatu, a More Than Me staff member, prepares meals for the awareness teams and talks to girls about Ebola on her daily mission into West Point.
Ebola is real, but so is Albertnita's dream of flying.
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Volunteers wear I Love West Point shirts. More Than Me made the shirts after speaking with members of the awareness team who told them if the word "Ebola" was on their shirts, no one would want to talk to them.
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Katie Meyler uses singing and dancing as an icebreaker at Ebola response team meetings. It creates a sense of intimacy with the people around her.
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A few months ago, Katie’s phone was stolen. This woman's friend took it. When she saw it was a More Than Me phone, she demanded her friend return it to its owner. She said if there had been a school like the More Than Me Academy when she was younger, she wouldn't be involved with the things she is today.
