In December 2013, an 18-month-old boy in a village in Guinea was reported to have Ebola virus disease. One case quickly turned into an outbreak that moved through Guinea and Sierra Leone. The first case in neighboring Liberia appeared in the village of Foya in March 2014. By the summer, ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia’s…
God Is at Work in the Lives of Liberia Burn Patients
Burn survivors of a late December fuel tanker explosion in Totota, Liberia, may or may not remember much about the moments before their lives changed. One minute they were watching people poke holes in an overturned tanker to harvest the fuel. The next, they were on fire. At least 40 of their fellow residents died…
Empowering Rural Villages to Help Mothers and Children
In the town of Gmomaken’s not-too-distant past, it was always their local herbalist that the families turned to with worries over fertility or for remedies to ensure the safe birth of a child. They would seek him out for alarming pregnancy pains and complications. They visited his darkened thatch-roofed hut in the center of town,…
Opening the Eyes of the Blind
William remembers very clearly the day three years ago that he began to lose his sight. While he can’t tell you what kind of insects they were, he recalls the searing pain of the stinging swarm that targeted his eyes that day. As the swelling subsided, another symptom developed—the world seemed to take on a…
A Land Flowing with Hope and Honey
A safe distance from her apiary, beekeeper Dorris Yengbeh places dried palm leaves into her smoker. She strikes a match and fans the bellows until smoke begins seeping thinly from the tin contraption. Now she dons her protective suit, a broad-brimmed hat with face, coverall, gloves, and rubber boots. “You have to be gentle with…
Their Lips Shall Praise You
Esther* had just given birth, yet she was being forced from her home and village with her newborn son James. Her father had looked on with anger at the deformed face of his grandson. He sent them both away from the village to save his family from the disgrace that would come upon them. “When…
Samaritan’s Purse to Open Ebola Treatment Center in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
LATEST: The Ebola Treatment Center is now open (Jan. 17). Please read more here. Samaritan’s Purse will soon open a treatment center in northeast Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in response to an Ebola virus disease outbreak that has killed more than 300 people. This recent outbreak was declared Aug. 1 and is now…
Liberia
As Africa’s oldest republic, Liberia was initially established on land that was purchased for slaves freed from the United States. More recently, it is known for its rainforest and a season of civil war in the 1990s. Samaritan’s Purse began hosting Operation Christmas Child outreach events for the nation’s children in 1998 and launched The…
International Projects
Mother’s Day Feature: A New Generation of Hope
It’s typically a long chain of tragic events that leads mothers and their malnourished babies to the pediatric ICU at ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. When they arrive, that’s when Dr. Michael Bryant first sees them and hope begins to grow. Dr. Bryant examines the poorly cut umbilical cord on a patient named Favor, who…