Kahindo’s story

Tommy Trenchard/ Caritas international- Kahindo, 37, lives in Mangina (DR Congo). She rebuilds herself after surviving the disease.

21/01/2020

“They are waiting for death. Maybe it will be them tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow.”

Kahindo Kitakya Fazila has lost 10 family members to the Ebola virus, including her mother. Kahindo was sick and terrified herself.

“When my mother died, the whole family was having symptoms and the health workers took us all to the Ebola health center,” she says. “I was so scared. We were all afraid. More than twenty people died every night.” ^[1]

I don’t know why I survived and the others didn’t.

- Kahindo

This epidemic has killed more than half of those infected, making it the second most severe in history.

“I don’t know why I survived and the others didn’t,” she says, puzzled. Fortunately, her children all survived.

>> ALSO READ: Ebola in RDC: challenges and response

Life after Ebola

Weak and distressed, Kahindo returned home to find that her neighbors and family all avoided her. “I felt abandoned,” she says. “In my head, I felt so alone.”

So, the Caritas team came to her village and explained to her family that she was no longer contagious. In addition, Caritas provided a monthly supply of rice, beans, oil. “Without that, we might’ve already been dead,” Kahindo whispers.

>> ALSO READ: Six things you didn’t know about Ebola

Help and be helped

Today, she helps out in a nursery that is supported by Caritas. There, children whose parents have Ebola are vaccinated and monitored for 21 days, which gives them a better chance of survival.

“I wanted to give back the help of the people who took care of me,” she explains. Working with children is important to her as it is to them, and it gives meaning to the goal of helping her own healing process.

This testimony was gathered by Harriet Paterson of Caritas Internationalis.