22-year-old Fatu Kekula, from Liberia, nursed her father, mother and sister back to health when they contracted the disease and were refused entry to an overcrowded hospital
Her ingenuity and courage makes her story even more remarkable by the effective measures Kekula took to ensure she wasn’t infected. Being a nursing trainee, she used plastic trash bags to protect herself from the deadly disease while nursing her family members back to health.
Unfortunately, despite her efforts to save all her family members, she was unable to save her cousin. According to her interview with CNN she lamented, “I cried many times, I said ‘God, you want to tell me I’m going to lose my entire family?”
She obtained her training from a three-year course at Liberia’s Cuttington University which unfortunately she could not return to because it has been shut down due to the Ebola outbreak. Nevertheless, Kekula has received a $40,000 scholarship to continue her training in America after a successful fundraising project was held.
UNICEF Spokeswoman Sarah Crowe said, “Essentially this is a tale of how communities are doing things for themselves. Our approach is to listen and work with communities and help them do the best they can with what they have.”