�鶹APP

Orphaned children Leno Ousmane Tamba, Leno Emmanuel, Leno Hawa and Leno Mathias at home in Conakry

Saa Mathias Lenoh, a high school student in the Guinean capital Conakry, says he�鶹APP�s �鶹APP�learning to smile little by little,�鶹APP� like thousands of other youngsters orphaned by Ebola in west Africa.

According to the United Nations, more than 22,000 children lost at least one parent to whose epicentre lay in the west African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

�鶹APP�The children really suffered at the start. The moment one came to know of illness in the family, they were automatically stigmatised,�鶹APP� said Yaya Diallo, an official with leading global NGO .

�鶹APP�The neighbours and even neighbourhood children who would play with them and went to school with them were forbidden by their parents to do so.

�鶹APP�Their own parents in turn would virtually lock them up at home or send them to communities very far away so that they would not have to suffer.�鶹APP�

The outbreak, which had its origins in Guinea, infected almost 29,000 people and claimed 11,315 lives, according to official data which most experts accept represents a significant underestimate.

The declared an official end to this outbreak last week �鶹APP� but within hours Sierra Leone reported a new fatal case.

����Helene Jeanne Komomou, a��12-year-old student from Comkary,��whose father died of Ebola

Ebola initially led to a knee-jerk reaction from locals and children from affected families often bore the brunt of ignorance and prejudice.

In one particularly horrific case in neighbouring Liberia, 12-year-old Fatu Sherrif was locked into her home with her dead mother in the quarantined hamlet of Ballajah, 90 miles from the capital Monrovia, as panicked neighbours fled to the forest.

Her cries could be heard for several days by the few who had stayed in the abandoned village before she died alone, without food or water.

International organisations deplored the lack of traditional solidarity to those affected this time round in contrast to earlier times, such as when AIDS had ravaged the continent.

But since then, nearly all those children have been taken in by foster families or are in care, the UN childrens�鶹APP� agency noted.

�鶹APP�Today, no study shows that a child is on the streets because his parents have died of Ebola,�鶹APP� Diallo said, adding that Plan International extended counselling for such children and helped host families by distributing food rations and hygiene kits. But despite this, many children have suffered.

�鶹APP�Life has been difficult,�鶹APP� said 18-year-old Lenoh, who lost a sister and both his parents to the disease. �鶹APP�If it hadn�鶹APP�t been for my elder brother, I don�鶹APP�t know how I would have continued my studies.

�鶹APP�Luckily nobody in my school knows that I�鶹APP�m an Ebola survivor except the principal who I took into confidence. He encourages me and comforts me often.�鶹APP�

A girl writes on a slate in her classroom at Coleyah Centre Primary School in Conakry Picture:��UNICEF/UNMEER/Martine Perret

His elder brother Emmanuel was not so lucky.

�鶹APP�I was forced to stop going to university and start working,�鶹APP� he said. �鶹APP�I lost both my parents in the span of a week,�鶹APP� in October 2014.

Emmanuel Lenoh said his mother, a trader, contracted the virus during one of her regular trips to Sierra Leone, and then infected other members of the family.

�鶹APP�Today, I cannot finish my studies. Otherwise without my help, the rest of the family can�鶹APP�t continue their studies.�鶹APP�

Jean Pe Kolie, a doctor at Conakry�鶹APP�s public university, lamented that there was no programme to rehabilitate Ebola orphans.

�鶹APP�There is no backing from the state and no funds to set up a project to reintegrate these children,�鶹APP� he said.

�鶹APP�We are trying to provide school stationery. We have programmes with some partners,�鶹APP� he said, citing UN agencies such as UNICEF and the .

�鶹APP�There is aid for survivors but not for orphans,�鶹APP� he said.

The , the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, covers humanitarian news, women�鶹APP�s rights, corruption and climate change.