Emergency Nurseries Help Orphans of Ebola Outbreak in DR Congo

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, emergency nurseries are stepping in to care for children who have lost their parents to Ebola. This outbreak has been ongoing for five months, particularly affecting the mining town of Mongbwalu in Ituri province, near the Uganda border.

According to UNICEF, children make up about one-third of the deaths and more than one-quarter of infections in this crisis, which has seen over 2,000 cases. Many children arrive at these nurseries after witnessing their parents die or being separated from them when their parents were taken to treatment centers.

Marie Bakikula, a caregiver at a nursery in Mongbwalu, shared that many of these children believe they will never see their parents again. They stay at the nurseries for 21 days, which is the incubation period for the virus, to monitor for any symptoms.

In some cases, child protection teams are able to find relatives who can take care of the orphaned children. However, many children remain unidentified, especially those who are too young or whose parents were too ill to provide information.

The current Ebola outbreak is the deadliest recorded in the DRC, with nearly 4,700 deaths reported. The disease spreads through contact with bodily fluids and has a fatality rate of around 50 percent. Despite ongoing efforts, health authorities are struggling with resource shortages and insecurity in the region, which complicates access to affected communities.