Foundation For Women
  • Home
  • Programs
    • Programs Overview
    • Microfinance
    • Education
    • Healthcare
    • Housing
    • Why Integrated Development
  • About
    • About FFW
    • Film Projects
    • Staff
    • Board
    • Partners
    • History & Values
  • News
  • Donate
  • Savvi
  • Contact

What's New?

Letters for Liberia: Stigmatization

4/2/2015

0 Comments

 
La Jolla, CA - I have been in touch with Liberia every day since departing last week. Yesterday I received a call from friend Foday, one of TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year when TIME named the Ebola Fighters with that honor last December. Foday is a hero. He tirelessly and constantly drove an ambulance, trying to get sick people to an Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU). At the height of the crisis, he often had to take patients back to their homes as there was no space in the ETUs for so many. Foday is also an Ebola survivor.
He called to talk about how sad he was about the Minister of Health’s announcement last Saturday advising Ebola survivors to abstain from or practice safe sex indefinitely, not just for three months which had been the policy as the virus had been detected in semen for up to 82 days. The way the announcement was made brought more stigmatization to the survivors community. Foday was deeply sad. We talked about how much fear Ebola has brought to all conversations, that this was just the latest example.

Fear vs love. Them and us vs we. The number of Ebola cases has now exceeded 25,000 with over ten thousand deaths; about 9000 cases in Liberia with almost 4000 deaths. Liberia reported no new cases last week while the virus continues to spread in Guinea and Sierra Leone. An unprecedented crisis.
​
And we still are not getting it right. On March 25, 2015, a letter was sent to the Executive Producer CBS 60 Minutes signed by 150 journalists and professors “expressing grave concern about the frequent and recurring misrepresentation of the African continent by 60 Minutes.” Regarding the coverage of Ebola in Liberia, the letter states:

“In that broadcast, Africans were reduced to the role of silent victims. They constituted what might be called a scenery of misery: people whose thoughts, experiences and actions were treated as if totally without interest. Liberians were shown within easy distance of (reporter) Logan, including some Liberian she had spoken about, and yet not a single Liberian was quoted in any capacity.
Liberian not only died from Ebola, but many of them contributed bravely to the fight against the disease, including doctors, nurses and other caregivers, some of whom gave their lives in this effort. Despite this, the only people heard from on the air were white foreigners who had come to Liberia to contribute to the fight against the disease.

Taken together this anachronistic style of coverage reproduces, in condensed form, many of the worst habits of modern American journalism on the subject of Africa. To be clear, this means that Africa only warrants the public’s attention when there is disaster or human tragedy on an immense scale, when Westerners can be elevated to the role of central characters, or when it is a matter of that perennial favorite, wildlife. As a corollary, Africans themselves are typically limited to the role of passive victims, or occasionally brutal or corrupt villains and incompetents; they are not otherwise shown to have any agency or even the normal range of human thoughts and emotions. Such a skewed perspective not only disserves Africa, it also badly disserves the news viewing and news reading public.”

The documentary I am working on, Liberians for Liberia, Ebola and Beyond, will be exactly the opposite of this 60 Minutes coverage. Fellow members of our human family will share their personal stories. I am so blessed and honored to be able to introduce them to all of you.
With love and gratitude ~ Deborah
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Deborah Lindholm with Deborah in Liberia

    About the Author

    Deborah Lindhom is the Founder and CEO of the Foundation for Women. For over 20 years she has lived and worked in Africa, India and the United States on issues of poverty, education and microcredit. 
    "​Just a quick note to say how we appreciate all that you are doing in Liberia and wish we could do more to help. We enjoy reading your newsletters which are always so well written.
    All the best!" ~ Ian and Julie Allen,  Africa and Beyond Art Gallery 

    Archives

    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    November 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014

    Categories

    All
    Announcements
    Ebola
    Education
    Film Projects
    Founder's Blog
    Fundraisers
    Healthcare In Liberia
    Housing Program
    In The News
    Letters For Liberia
    Letters From Liberia
    Liberia
    Microfinance
    Newsletters
    Press Releases
    Skateboard Liberia Project
    Success Stories

    RSS Feed

Helping over a million women and their families since 1997

Donate

The Foundation for Women is a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation. Donations are tax deductible. Federal Tax ID #33-0786016
2005-2017 The Foundation for Women. All rights reserved. Login
  • Home
  • Programs
    • Programs Overview
    • Microfinance
    • Education
    • Healthcare
    • Housing
    • Why Integrated Development
  • About
    • About FFW
    • Film Projects
    • Staff
    • Board
    • Partners
    • History & Values
  • News
  • Donate
  • Savvi
  • Contact