Book on Ebola’s Untold Story Launched

By H Matthew Turry

MONROVIA – The Angie Brooks International Centre for Women’s Empowerment, Leadership Development, International Peace and Security in collaboration with The Liberian Institute for “Growing” Patriotism on Thursday, April 10, 2025 launched a book titled, “Stepping Up To The Plate: Liberia’s Untold Ebola Story” at the National Museum on Broad Street.

Launcher of the book, former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf told her experience: “I received a call that there Liberians that has crossed into the upper part of Lofa County from Guinea, and they were showing strange sign of disease that was coming. We did know what that was. We had not experienced any kinds of infectious disease of that intensity, and so our first reaction was to make sure to stop the movement.

“Because, it was spreading so fast as people move from one place to another, others were been affected, and people were dying along the way. And so, not been perfect in what we do, we started immediately with a militant solution by trying to stop people from crossing the boarders to make sure they stay in their places and wait for treatment.”

According to her, the prediction that was being made by the World Health Organization that one million people would die frightened everybody, and “we resisted it”.  

According to her, success was credited to the combined efforts of Liberians, with the help of Dr. Walter Gwenigale, Dr. Jerry Brown, Dr. Tolbert Nyenswah and the international partners.

“Everybody work, the religious people met as a group, the business people met as a group, the students met as group; everyone met together as a group and the rallying call was one plan, one strategy, one program,” she recalled.

The former Liberian leader further narrated: “There are two things that I have always remembered: the state of the Liberia people, but when we decided to respond, it was decision in the hands of the people and those people were the community health workers that they would form their own leadership and those leaders would identifies the centers.”

For her part, the Angie Brooks International Centre Establishment Coordinator Cllr. Yvette Chesson-Wureh expressed appreciation to former president Sirleaf for putting the Angie Brooks International Centre on the presidential taskforce team at that time to help save lives.

“We also played a role as a mediator between the government and the community,” he said. “We trained our youth and our youth went out there into the trenches of the communities. What we did at the Angie Brooks, we went ahead and hired a firm in New York that we were getting vaccines from,” Cllr. Chesson-Wureh said.

Making brief remarks, ambassador Olubanke King-Akerele, the Executive Director The Liberian Institute for “Growing” Patriotism said the publication of the “Stepping Up To The Plate: Liberia’s Untold Ebola Story” is about Liberians telling their own stories, how they survive.

“How many of you may recall when you were in the midst of this. I hope this book; Stepping up to the Plate shows how Liberians did it. Liberians women and civil society organizations arose and saved the country,” she said. The launching ceremony was graced by dignitaries from UN, AU, World Bank, WHO and current and former officials of government that included former President Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Associate Justice Jamesetta Wolokollie, former  Agriculture Minister Jeanine Cooper, Sister Mary Lawerence Brown, Jerolimek Piah, amongst others.