dolescents (ELA) programme, active in five countries in Africa, is to provide young girls with safe spaces where they can socialize and receive life-skills training in order to help them become financially independent. During this post-Ebola phase, the ELA clubs will function as discussion centres to help young girls deal with the effects of this unforeseen crisis. BRAC’s ELA programme aims to bring in 10,000 new members in five districts in Sierra Leone.
As in neighboring Liberia, Sierra Leone’s hard-earned victory is cause for celebration. But the work is not over. Ebola was always an emergency within an emergency. The immediate threat of Ebola appears to be nearly gone, and this will give West Africans the much-needed space to shift their energies back to tackling the even greater scourge of rural poverty and powerlessness.
Faruque Ahmed is executive director of BRAC International.
Photo courtesy of BRAC.