When Ebola first reached Sierra Leone in May 2014, I was serving as Regional Coordinator for Restless Development in the South and East — covering Bo, Bonthe, Moyamba, Pujehun, Kenema, and Kailahun, the very district where that first case was confirmed. Like everyone, we were confronted by something our country had never faced: a disease that arrived wrapped in fear, denial, stigma, and profound uncertainty.
As the virus spread and fatalities rose, it became clear this was no ordinary public health challenge. When President Koroma declared a State of Public Emergency on 31 July 2014, Restless Development faced a defining choice: withdraw our volunteers to safety, or adapt and stay. We chose to stay — not recklessly, but responsibly. We revised our operating procedures, strengthened safety protocols, and deepened our commitment to community engagement.
Taking on the Response
I was appointed South and East Ebola Response Programme Manager and gained Master Trainer certification in the Community-Led Ebola Action (CLEA) methodology through the Social Mobilization Action Consortium. This marked a pivotal shift in my leadership. I was no longer managing routine development programmes, I was helping coordinate a life-or-death response in communities gripped by dread and loss.
At the height of the response, I managed over 40 response staff and 600 youth community mobilizers across the region. These young people walked to isolated settlements, entered homes where families were frightened, and engaged with chiefs, religious leaders, teachers, and health workers. They were the heartbeat of the response, not messengers, but trusted partners.
From Fear to Action: The CLEA Approach
CLEA diverged sharply from the fear-based messaging that dominated early response communications. Communities were exhausted by being told “Ebola kills” without being shown what they could do about it. CLEA reframed that conversation: communities were treated as capable partners who could analyse their own risks and design their own solutions, not passive recipients of top-down directives.
Through triggering sessions, role plays, body mapping, and household-level dialogue, mobilizers helped communities understand the risks of unsafe funerals, the importance of early referral, and practical steps families could take to protect themselves. Community Champions were identified to sustain action between visits. Critically, communities developed their own action plans, making them more likely to own and defend the changes.
When a trusted young person from within the community explains why burial practices must change, it carries more weight than any government broadcast. Behaviour shifts when people understand that safe burial is an act of love and protection, not a rejection of culture.
Leadership in a Crisis
My role extended well beyond programme oversight. I coordinated cascade training for mobilizers, managed field quality, resolved operational gaps, and supervised District Liaison Officers embedded at District Ebola Response Centres. I ensured that community intelligence, complaints about delays, mistrust, stigma, and response team conduct, reached district and national decision-makers. In a crisis where information travels as fast as the virus, that feedback loop was critical.
The Ebola outbreak was not only a medical emergency, it was a crisis of trust. Families were asked to stop touching sick loved ones. Communities were asked to abandon long-held burial customs. Rumours spread faster than official information. In that environment, behaviour change could not be enforced; it had to be negotiated, with honesty, patience, and respect.
What We Proved and What It Means
Sierra Leone’s youth-led mobilisation, anchored by Restless Development, contributed to developing community Ebola action plans, promoting safe and dignified burials, increasing case reporting, and improving referral rates within 24 hours. None of these outcomes were small. Each prevented transmission chains. Each saved lives.
The Ebola response reinforced for me that community engagement is never optional in a crisis. Health infrastructure, treatment centres, labs, ambulances, is essential, but it cannot function without public trust. Communities must understand the why, the where, and the how of reporting. They must see themselves as part of the response, not separate from it.
Above all, the response confirmed what Restless Development has always believed: young people are not passive recipients of development. During one of West Africa’s worst public health emergencies, they served as educators, organisers, first responders, and community defenders — demonstrating their capacity to lead recovery at national scale.
Lessons That Outlast the Outbreak
Prevention is cheaper than response. Investing early in community health systems, local leadership, trusted communication, and youth mobilisation costs far less than emergency containment, school closures, lost livelihoods, and recovery. Waiting for clarity, as Ebola proved, costs lives.
Communities are not problems to be solved; they are partners to be trusted. When genuinely involved in planning, implementation, and feedback, communities have the capacity to change even the most deeply ingrained behaviours. And first responders, including young mobilisers facing grief and fear daily, need care, psychosocial support, and sustained human investment alongside their operational training.
When Sierra Leone declared the end of the outbreak, the victory belonged to health workers, burial teams, emergency responders, local leaders, survivors, families, and to the hundreds of young social mobilisers who travelled from village to household, replacing fear with knowledge and isolation with collective action. Communities are always the first line of defence. Invest in them before the crisis comes.
