At least 3,700 children in West Africa have lost one or both parents to Ebola, according to UNICEF.
The Ebola outbreak has left as least 3,700 children orphaned in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to UNICEF.
Children sit in front of their home in the St. Paul Bridge neighborhood of Monrovia, Liberia, Sept. 28.
AP Photo/Jerome Delay
Most of these children, who have lost one or both parents to the deadly virus, are being abandoned and shunned by relatives for fear of infection.
Children pray during Sunday service at the Bridgeway Baptist Church in the St. Paul Bridge neighborhood of Monrovia, Liberia, on Sept. 28.
AP Photo/Jerome Delay
"These children urgently need special attention and support; yet many of them feel unwanted and even abandoned," said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Regional Director for West & Central Africa.
A Liberian child sells oranges at the site where a team of U.S. Navy engineers prepares the ground for a 25-bed medical facility they are building next to the airport in Monrovia on Sept. 27.
AP Photo/Jerome Delay
Fontaine said thousands of children "are living through the deaths of their mother, father or family members from Ebola."
Some of them are as young as three or four years old, the BBC reported.
While orphans are usually taken in by their extended families, Fontaine said "the fear surrounding Ebola is becoming stronger than family ties."
from BuzzFeed - Breaking http://ift.tt/1ov3Pas
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