Nearly 3,600 children orphaned by Ebola outbreak in West Africa – UNICEF -TRFN
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has orphaned nearly 3,600 children in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the United Nations Children's Fund said on Friday. By mid-January, 16,600 children were left without one or both parents or their main caregiver in the three countries worst hit by the epidemic, UNICEF said. Extended families and communities were providing care for the vast majority of the children with only three percent of them needing to be placed outside family or community care. "Since overcoming their initial fears and misconceptions about Ebola, families have been showing incredible support, providing care and protection for children whose parents have died," Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF's regional director for West and Central Africa, said in a statement.
