Ebola resources
UNIT 1: The geography of Ebola and its impact on peoples’ lives
‘Ebola is not a pleasing name to me’
Bintu Sinnoh, 13 years old from Sierra Leone, published by the Guardian
www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/11/bintu-sannoh-ebola-sierra-leone-eyewitness
Task 1
Read the article linked above.
*Bintu describes her life before Ebola. What adjectives does she use? (Answer: hard, OK, poor,
happiness)
Draw two word clouds to show what Bintu’s life was like (a) before and (b) after ebola struck.
Task 2
*Working in pairs, place these events, all from Bintu’s eyewitness account, in chronological order:
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Charity food aid arrives
Ebola in the family
The community is quarantined
Ebola first arrives
Children are orphaned
‘Sensitisation’
The people are terrified
Ebola in the local community
Too many people have died and are dying
Ebola recognised in the country of Sierra Leone
** When you have your timeline ordered compare it with another pair. Discuss the differences and
then go back to your work and make amendments if necessary.
**Repeat until you have agreed the sequence; be prepared to share your timeline with the class and
provide reasoning for your order of events.
geography.org.uk
*** When and how do you think the government, NGOs, charities and other countries should have
intervened to reduce the impact of Sierra Leone’s Ebola crisis?
Teachers may wish to refer to this photo resource: Braving Ebola
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/31/world/africa/photos-of-workers-and-survivorsbraving-ebola-at-a-clinic-in-liberia.html?smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0
Task 3
Ebola is one of the world’s most deadly diseases. It is a highly infectious virus that can kill up to 90
percent of the people who catch it, causing terror among infected communities. Ebola is so
infectious that patients need to be treated in isolation by staff wearing protective clothing.
Take a look at - the largest Ebola centre ever built. The MSF's Ebola centre in Monrovia, Liberia. Find
out from this site where Ebola is currently a problem and where the outbreak has been declared
over.
http://www.msf.org.uk/ebola
Task 4
GA members can download and print an Africa base map here
(http://geography.org.uk/resources/basemaps) for this task
*On a blank map showing the countries of Africa locate Sierra Leone, colour it in and name it.
*Research the other West Africa countries affected by Ebola and then colour each in a different
colour and name them on the same map.
*On a blank world map
(http://www.geography.org.uk/download/GA_BaseMapEckertIVProjection.pdf) mark all the
countries where there have been Ebola patients.
Teachers may wish to provide the following news stories to help with this activity:
http://www.news.com.au/world/breaking-news/first-ebola-case-confirmed-in-mali/story-e6frfkui1227100624666
and
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/10/30/national/chinese-risk-of-ebola-outbreak-notrocket-science-expert/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=chinese-risk-of-ebolaoutbreak-not-rocket-science-expert#.VFJUMzSsVp9
This link is very useful for any school wanting to carry out some GIS work on ebola.
https://nga.maps.arcgis.com/home/
**Add to each map the numbers of Ebola related deaths to date.
geography.org.uk
** Describe and give reasons for the patterns shown on the maps.
***Study the map below. What does it show about Ebola outbreaks in Africa 1976-2014?
Map sourced from: http://blog.education.nationalgeographic.com/2014/09/22/all-about-ebola/
Task 5
*When Ebola first arrived in Sierra Leone ‘we had a riot’ wrote Bintu
(www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/11/bintu-sannoh-ebola-sierra-leone-eyewitness). What are
the four reasons Bintu gave for the riot?
** Explain why her community rioted under the banner ‘EBOLA IS NOT REAL’.
geography.org.uk
Task 6
Bintu looks towards her future and she foresees many Ebola related problems/issues: social,
economic and socio-economic.
*Place the impacts of the virus into a large blank Venn diagram (example below) to classify the
problems listed in the table and give the diagram a title:
Lack of income
Education disrupted
Jobs lost
Food shortages
Trade disrupted
More aid reliant on others
More school dropouts
More teenage pregnancies
Loss of independence
Schools closed
Homelessness
Ebola families isolated and stigmatised
Teachers may wish to use the link below to look at the larger scale economic issues- ‘The Economics
of Ebola’.
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21629389-how-firms-are-adapting-virus-threatenseconomies-well-lives-still-open?
Social
Economic
SocioEconomic
geography.org.uk
Task 7
Bintu finishes her piece by asking ‘Who will help us out of this trouble?’
One charity at work in Sierra Leone is ‘street-child’ with their Ebola Crisis Appeal.
*Research www.street-child.co.uk
* Create a poster, leaflet or 60 second radio or TV announcement for the street-child Ebola Crisis
Appeal. The target audience is 11-18 years old.
Use appropriate terminology to ensure maximum clarity, effectiveness, impact and geographical
accuracy.
You could use this in your class, year, school or even community to raise awareness and money for
Street Child or one of the many other charities also involved in the relief efforts.
Teachers could use the following diary from Radio 1 Newsbeat/Oxfam in Sierra Leone for further
geographical details:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/29748486
and
http://www.oxfam.org/en/research/turning-tideebola?utm_source=oxf.am&utm_medium=F7e&utm_content=redirect
geography.org.uk