As Ebola takes lives in

Liberia, it leaves hunger in

its wake

By Lenny Bernstein November 12 at 8:24 PM

FOYA, Liberia The Ebola virus, which has killed more

than 2,830 Liberians and collapsed the countrys health-care system, is also attacking
Liberias food supply, bringing intermittent hunger to a wide swath of this country
even as its 4.1 million people try to survive the epidemic.
The typical family income, already among the lowest in the world, has declined as the

epidemic raged in recent months, shutting workplaces and killing breadwinners.

Closed borders with Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast have sharply reduced trade.
Markets in villages and towns across the country have been shut down to limit large
gatherings, which can abet transmission of the virus.
The planting and harvesting seasons were disrupted when Ebola hit the farm belt in
June.
We need assistance. We need food here in Foya, said Joseph Gbellie, commissioner
for this rural, largely agricultural district in Liberias northwest. If we dont get help,
itll be serious, I tell you.

Liberians carry bags of bulgur wheat and cans of cooking oil after receiving food from a

U.N. World Food Program distribution in Kolba City. (Michel du Cille/The

Washington Post )
In a nation already burdened by widespread poverty and unemployment, 90 percent of
families have reduced the amount of food consumed at each meal and 85 percent are
eating fewer meals, according to a survey by Mercy Corps, a Portland, Ore., nonprofit
group.
In a separate assessment released Monday, the U.N. World Food Program (WFP)
reported that food insecurity now affects all areas of the country. The U.S. Agency for
International Development says Ebola-affected communities are at Stage 3 on its fivepoint scale, with 5 signifying famine and 1 indicating minimal problems obtaining
food.
Mary Wargbo, one of many subsistence farmers in this area of Lofa County, has seen
the problem firsthand. Last week, she and her two children were harvesting the
familys small rice crop in the oppressive midday heat, weeks later than they do in
normal years. They picked the crop by hand, cut the stems with small curved knives
and tied the plants into small bundles. They will consume it all, and this year, in the
wake of the Ebola outbreak, it is insufficient.
It is not enough, but we manage, she said. I will buy some. I dont have money, but I
will buy some.

Many of Liberias food market stalls closed for months because of the Ebola crisis.
(Michel du Cille/The Washington Post )
About 250 miles away, in Dolos Town, a poor community of 15,000 people east of the
capital city of Monrovia, Bobby Dumbar is at the other end of the food-supply chain,
but his circumstances are similar. With his parents killed by Ebola, Dumbar, 28, has
become the breadwinner for his 11 siblings, including the 7-month-old girl in his arms.
The family was picking up a months worth of rice, cooking oil and other supplies
donated by Orphan Aid Liberia, a small nonprofit group based in Cartersville, Ga.
Dumbar figured the food would last his family two weeks.
After that, I go hustle, he said. By hawking wares on the streets, he predicted, he will
bring in less than $1 a day.
There is no evidence of starvation in Liberia, no bloated bellies or emaciated children
such as have characterized African famine in the past. Liberians and the aid groups
assisting them are determined to prevent that.
The WFP has distributed 6,500 metric tons of food here since August, handing it out
along a trail blazed by the virus, to Ebola treatment centers, survivors recovering from
the infection and communities hit hard by the epidemic. USAID has spent $20 million

to fund the effort so far.

But that is little comfort to Jennneh Korhene, who must feed 10 children. She was
collecting a 110-pound bag of bulgur wheat, along with oil and other staples at a WFP
distribution for Ebola victims in Kolba City, about an hour from Foya.
Sometimes, we only depend on God for food, she said. Sometimes, there is no food
for the next day.

Liberians load bags of food received from the World Food Program in Kolba City.
(Michel du Cille/The Washington Post )
With a climate and landscape hospitable to farming, Liberia could have a welldeveloped agricultural sector, said Alghassim Wurie, the WFPs deputy country
director for Liberia. But there is little machinery on the mostly small Liberian farms,
and most of the work is done by hand. Few farms are large enough to generate
surpluses that could regularly be sold for profit. Liberians also raise very little
livestock.
As a result, Liberia imports more than half its food.
Without technology to help them, Liberian farmers work under the kuu system, an
informal cooperative labor arrangement. Neighbors gather at one familys farm to
plant, weed or harvest a crop and then move on together to the next farm and the next,
until the job is done.
Ebola burst into Foya and the surrounding area of Lofa County in June, at one of the
worst possible moments.
Ebola came at a time when people were about to plant their crops for the season,
Wurie said.

A woman grinds cassava leaves with peppers in Dolos Town, Liberia. (Michel du
Cille/The Washington Post )
As people began to die, local and federal officials told everyone to stay home. Fearful of
gatherings that might spread the virus, they reduced the number of people in each kuu
from as many as 50 to as few as five, according to a Mercy Corps assessment. Some
abandoned their farms or did not plant.
Timing, critical to the success of the rice crop, was thrown off. Planting was delayed by
about three weeks, which set back weeding and other maintenance and postponed the
harvest. Now, experts said, the overall yield will decline, and farmers are worried about
having enough seed rice for next year.
No one is sure of the total impact. Gbellie and another district commissioner said the
harvest could be 50 percent less than normal. A Mercy Corps assessment puts the
damage at about 10 percent for upland rice and 25 percent for lowland rice.

Dina Esposito, director of USAIDs Office of Food for Peace, said, We are expecting an
average to below-average harvest, especially for people directly affected by Ebola.
In Dolos Town, Agnes Bowell, 21, is trying to shepherd her three sisters through the
crisis after the death of seven family members, including both parents. But feeding 4year-old Diane, 15-year-old Mardea and 18-year-old Musu has become a challenge.
The kids are hungry most of the time, because there is no food, she said.
Wargbo, the subsistence farmer, said she is happy that trucks carrying the dead in
white body bags are no longer a common sight on the road that runs by her rice plot.
Since the end of May, 642 people in Lofa County have been infected by Ebola, and 214
have died, the third-largest totals among the countrys 15 counties, according to the
Liberian government.
The virus has receded in recent weeks. But Wargbos food supply is already damaged.
Last year was enough, more than this year, she said. There should be more.

Lenny Bernstein writes the To Your Health blog. He started as an

editor on the Posts National Desk in 2000 and has worked in Metro and
Sports.
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