Pandemics put girls at risk
The Ebola crisis taught us a lot about how pandemics disproportionately affect girls and women.
Across Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, women account for up to 60% of the deceased. In Liberia alone, 75% of Ebola cases are women.
School closures in Sierra Leone led to a dramatic increase in teenage pregnancies and sexual assaults; thousands of girls were barred from returning to class once classes resumed.
Due to the financial fallout Ebola caused in West African communities, many families couldn’t afford food, led alone tuition. If a family did have money to send children to school, boy children were often given priority.
Girls became caregivers for younger siblings when one or both parents succumbed to Ebola.
On the frontlines at home and at work
In most communities, women carry the social burden of caregiving, which puts them at higher risk of infection.
Women serve mainly as nurses and cleaners in hospitals, and are not given sufficient personal protective equipment as compared to their male counterparts.
In remote areas, women are more closely involved with funeral burials, where they can contract the virus from infected individuals who have passed.
School
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Far-Reaching consequences
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