Liberian Girl Orphaned In Ebola Outbreak Starts A New Life

Reborn

Thanks to UNICEF, Watta has a chance to move on—and even go to school.

Nina Strochlic

Updated Apr. 20, 2017 5:38PM ET / Published Mar. 26, 2015 1:00PM ET

After 11-year-old Watta lost her mother and father to Ebola last year she was ostracized by her community in Liberia. "They said we are Ebola people," she recalled of those days. Now, after three weeks in a UNICEF-supported care center, she's back on her feet. She's living with her sister and for the first time in her life, Watta is attending school. But the Ebola outbreak isn't over in West Africa: according to a new UNICEF study, one in five infections are in children in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.