Liberian Trainee Nurse Saves Family From Ebola, Proves We Need To Educate The Women

During the Ebola crisis, many of the brave men and women caring for the sick have been struck down by the disease. Even those wearing protective suits and taking all possible procautions.

Which makes it all the more incredible that a Liberian woman, with no access to proper Ebola protection gear managed not only to avoid infection while surrounded by the disease, but also successfully nursed three infected members of her family back to health.

Fatu Kekula, 22, is now headed for the US to finish her nursing studies at Emory University in Georgia, after a campaign successfully raised money for her education. She had been studying in Liberia but in the wake of the Ebola crisis, many of the schools have been closed, including Fatu's.

Fatu Kekula's Victory Over Ebola

It was Fatu's father who was the first in the family to come down with Ebola, catching it while in hospital for high blood pressure.

Hospitals around Liberia were straining under the weight of the crisis and many were forced to close, including all those local to Fatu and her family. So when her father Moses, 52, was sent away he had to return to the family home where Fatu's mother, Victoria, 57, sister Vivian, 28 and cousin Alfred Winnie, 14, all came down with the infection.

Determined to take care of her family but afraid of catching Ebola herself, Fatu fashioned a protective suit out of rubbish bags, wellies and a mask and used her nursing training to administer medicines and drips. She spoke to the local doctor on the phone for advice as he wouldn't visit.

"I cried many times," she said. "I said 'God, you want to tell me I'm going to lose my entire family?'"

But all her hard work and precautions paid off and her father, mother and sister were all well on their way to recovery when space became available at JFK Medical Center on around three weeks after Moses had first become ill. Sadly Alfred passed away in hospital.

"I'm very, very proud," Moses said. "She saved my life through the almighty God."

We Need To Educate Our Women

Education in Liberia and much of Africa and the rest of the developing world is hit and miss, particularly for women. Two-thirds of the world's uneducated children are girls, and two-thirds of the world's illiterate adults are women.

Fatu Kekula's education not only saved her own life but those of her family too - and she helped prevent Ebola spreading further, something that many people gripped by the outbreak cannot do due to lack of education and knowledge of what causes the deadly disease.

Educating women gives them the power to pass on their knowledge to their children, to look after their own health better and that of their families. Childhood mortality rates reduce as mothers' education increases and the children of educated mothers are more likely to have the opportunity to get an education themselves.

And it's not just Ebola that education can help fight. The AIDS epidemic in Africa could be brought under control with better education for women.

Not to mention the economic cost of not educating girls to the same standard as boys, which has been estimated by UNESCO to be costing us $92billion a year, worldwide.

Fatu Kekula is lucky - she was already in education when the Ebola crisis hit and she is fortunately going to be given the chance to finish it.

But it shouldn't be down to luck. Education is a basic human right. All the world's women should be able to access it and while that's not happening, we are failing them.

What Can We Do?

There are numerous charities around the world raising money and working with local communities to bring education to everyone. A few places to start include:

Educating Girls Matters has a comprehensive list of charities around the world that work on the ground to improve education opportunities for girls and women. You can read about them and choose where to give your support.

Camfed offers help to women in remote rural regions, using education to tackle poverty and help women help themselves and their families to break the cycle.

Care International works to identify the barriers to female education in the developing world and helps local communities, governments and individuals to tackle them.

One of the most important lessons Ebola has tought us is that we cannot afford for mothers, sisters and daughters to go uneducated. If we do more and more people will die.

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