Tonhon Bolamou was just 10-years-old when she contracted the Ebola virus in March 2016. After spending 13 days in the Ebola Treatment Center in N’Zerekore, in southeastern Guinea, where she was treated by ALIMA medical teams, she was discharged on April 7. Tonhon is the second-to-last survivor of the most recent flare-up of the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak. The last survivor was discharged on April 21, 2016. More than 28,000 people were infected during the outbreak. 11,323 people died.
One year after she was cured, Tonhon says her life in the village of Koropara, in southeastern Guinea’s forest region, is “back to normal.”
“I was there [in the Ebola Treatment Center] a really long time. I was so afraid. All I saw was the masks and the white suits.”
Tonhon, now age 11, is in the third grade at her school in Koropara village, 90 kilometers from N’Zerekore.
Her favorite subjects are geometry and math.
After school, Tonhon enjoys playing a game of catch, known as ‘bouge,’ with her friends. Thanks to community sensitization campaigns, Tonhon experienced very little stigma when returning home.
“Everyone welcomed me back. My friends all came to play with me.”
Each month, Tonhon, who is one of 114 survivors enrolled in ALIMA’s Ebola Survivor Care program in N’Zerekore, is visited by staff to ensure she is doing well. Here, she talks with Doctor Ivonne Loua, who manages the program.
Tonhon plays a form of hopscotch, known as “le sateaux,” outside her home with ALIMA’s program coordinator in N’Zerekore, Sory Keita.
On her days off from school, Tonhon helps her father with household chores, such as hanging laundry.
“I was sick for a while, but now I am strong. My life is back to normal. I’m happy to be alive.”
Tonhon says she would like to become a doctor one day, when she grows up.
“I like medicine, because I want to cure people like the doctors who saved me.”
Photos: Ricci Shryock/ALIMA
