The Ebola outbreak has had a profound impact on the entire Liberian community in Boston, according to two locals.
Jassie Senwah was born in Liberia and moved here 12 years ago. She’s now the Youth Liaison for the Liberian Metro Boston Community.
Melvin Dahn is also from Liberia. He’s a pastor with Christ Pavilion Ministries, in Monrovia, and just returned from a trip to Liberia in August.
The following interview has been condensed. Watch the video below for the complete conversation:
EMILY ROONEY: Reverend, the disease had already broken out when you visited Liberia. Was there panic?
REV. MELVIN DAHN: I had entered Liberia just before the Ebola broke out. Liberians are people who normally don’t easily believe stuff when it first starts. But after a while, when a lot of patients were reported dead, it started being very serious. So there was a lot of fear and havoc, and one of the things that constitutes the society of Liberia is greetings with shaking of hands and hugging and all of that, and it was so sad to see that Liberians could not greet each other anymore with shaking of hands and hug, so it was a little bit devastating.
Jassie, when you talk to people on the phone, friends and family, what are the circumstances? We look at the New York Times and other news outlets and we see people lying in the street, we see young children lying in hospitals unattended, I mean is it that bad?
JASSIE SENWAH: It is that bad. My grandmother is still there. My mother and my aunts are still there, as well as some family members that I’m close with. It is like that in the street. When you look back at the wars that we’ve been through, our health care infrastructure is in shambles. So there are people on the streets. There aren’t enough beds to hold people who have been tested or who are showing symptoms of Ebola. There are barely any ambulances; prior to the Ebola outbreak, we barely had anything. So now that we are faced with this epidemic, with this crisis, it has put us in a way backwards, where we were during times of war.
Is the country looking for greater assistance? American doctors have gone there, but are they looking for emergency hospitals to be set up? What more can be done?
SENWAH: There are, and when you look at that aid, it was just actually on CNN today earlier today, when you look at that aid that’s been poured into Liberia, and you compare that to other aid like when that incident happened in Haiti. As well as you look at hurricanes, you look at typhoons and so forth, the aid that went into those countries, it was massive. And when you look at Ebola now and you compare that, it’s not the same. They are looking for aid funding, resources, and if doctors can go forth, go and help, that would be great. But when you look at Liberia, a country with only four million people...
Four million, yeah; I looked at that today I was shocked it was so small.
SENWAH: Right! And you look at Nigeria, with like 178 million people...
I want to ask the reverend about that. Why has it been contained in Nigeria?
DAHN: There are many reasons why, I believe, it is contained in other countries and it is not in Liberia. First of all, Liberia was just recovering from 15 years of civil war, and the country was just getting back on course from a long-lasting war and the economy was growing. But, the reason I think it is having more damages in Liberia is because first of all, the health sector in Liberia is damaged. People are not well educated when it comes to hygiene. But I do believe that, that like Jassie just stated, more help, more education, more awareness, more more funding, more facilities need to be built that will increase the health sectors in Liberia.
Has either of you felt a stigma here by being Liberian?
SENWAH: I have seen that in my life where you meet somebody, and usually when they hear you speak for more than 10 seconds, then they hear the accent, and they want to know, you know, '“Where are you from?” And me being proud to be from Liberia, I’m like, “I’m Liberian,” and they’ll go, “Oh.” So we face that.
