What I Learned from Ebola
In July 2023, I attended the Braver Angels national convention on the sacred ground of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Attendees were asked, “Why are you here?” and I wrote “I am worried that my grandchildren will not experience the benefits of this country that I have.” Other responses included: “I am here because, if we don’t change how our politics is done, we’ll see ourselves in another civil war. Except this time, it won’t look like Gettysburg—it’ll look like Rwanda.”
Having worked in Rwanda in the early 2000s, that caught my attention. I led a US Agency for International Development-funded project to strengthen the parliament in that nation, which was so scarred by the 1994 Hutu genocide against the Tutsis. Neighbors killed neighbors, even people they knew well, just because they were in a different tribe. The killers were emboldened by leaders who exploited difference and fear. I remember feeling grateful that we didn’t have political tribalism in the United States.Some years later, in 2014, I was working in Guinea during the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. I recall thinking that Americans, unlike many Guineans, would have faith and trust in our public health system in the event of a national medical emergency.
I was obviously wrong about our country avoiding both tribalism and a public health emergency. The COVID pandemic hit the US five years later, severely testing our ability to communicate with each other and trust what the government was telling us. While that pandemic may be behind us, it has clearly left deep scars.
We are now witnessing another big Ebola outbreak in Africa, this time centered in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with fearful people distrusting health workers and even attacking treatment centers. That has me thinking back to 12 years ago when I served as Peace Corps country director in Guinea. While the Peace Corps volunteers were sent home as a precaution, I stayed behind with our mostly Guinean staff to support the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) effort to contain this highly infectious disease.
Many Guineans were highly skeptical about Ebola, and there were many rumors and widespread resistance. Many who had contact with Ebola went into hiding, and there were incidents of crowds attacking government convoys. My staff used our deep community connections to educate citizens about the disease and the precautions required. We trained homemakers, teachers, students, youth leaders, and others about common rumors and how to overcome fear and resistance back home.
These community educators went back to their villages and developed a personal action plan starting with one-one-one conversations with family members, neighbors, and others they knew. As they gained confidence and gained support, they moved outward to others in their community, including speaking in small groups.
Our Ebola training initiative succeeded for many reasons. We identified respected community members as educators who gained credibility, earned respect and gained trust as volunteers. They asked open-ended questions and did not judge people. They applied participative approaches to learning, used their local languages and adapted messages to the community level. They were trained with role-playing techniques that helped them communicate effectively.
Ultimately, this initiative was estimated to reach 3.2 million people, one quarter of Guinea’s population, and Ebola was largely eradicated. U.S. Ambassador Dennis Hankins, wrote, “Peace Corps local staff were able to make a key contribution in fighting Ebola. Through their collective efforts, I am convinced hundreds if not thousands of lives were saved.”
Peace Corps sent a cash award to the Guinea staff, and we bought a large quantity of pagna, traditional fabric. Each staff member was given a piece and, as is the tradition in Africa, asked local tailors to make us each a shirt or dress. Then we went out to lunch at a Conakry restaurant in our matching outfits!
For more details about this effort, see this article I wrote in the National Peace Corps Association publication WorldView: “Beating Ebola: Peace Corps’ Untold Story of Fighting the Virus in Guinea” https://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/articles/beating-ebola.
Reflecting back, the most important lesson for me is, if you want to influence others, you have to be seen as trustworthy. You earn trust by treating others with dignity and respect, including listening to what they have to say. This requires enormous patience and practice starting with one-on-one conversations that apply courage, humility, and vulnerability.
These same lessons are needed to help our country continue for another 250 years – and hopefully many more. We each have an extraordinary opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives, including our own. Don’t underestimate your impact!
