CESTOS, Rive Cess – Amos Yarway, a resident of Charlie Town in River Cess, said his 19-year-old daughter had her first seizure 14 years ago.

“She was five years when she fainted for the first time, but we thought it was a high fever affecting her,” Yarway said.

“Few months later, she started to faint again so we took her to district four in Grand Bassa County, to a man who they said could cure her. I spent all the money I had during the war but she did not get well till now,” he said.

Yarway’s daughter lives with epilepsy, a condition that affects the brain and causes its victims to have seizures.

In Liberia, epilepsy is perpetuated as a spiritual sickness caused by witchcraft and as such, people living with the condition and their caretakers prefer to seek treatment from witch doctors, rather than modern health facilities.

Hawa Kengo Mataley, a mental health clinician in River Cess, said the belief “that epilepsy is a spiritual sickness caused by witchcraft” hinders efforts to treat it in the county.

According to Mataley, “There is treatment at all of the facilities in the county but the myths and stigma are making people not to seek medical treatment.

“Because of the belief our people have about epilepsy, more people don’t want to go for treatment,” she said. “They would rather go to country doctors for treatment which will not help them.”

Mental Health Clinician, Hawa Kengo Mataley. Photo: Eric Doue

Moreover, there is a widespread belief that epilepsy is communicable and because of that, people with the condition are highly stigmatized.

A 16-year-old girl who preferred not to be named said that she could not go to school because of the condition.

“When I go to school, nobody can come around me, so my ma says I should sit down,” she said. “In this town, only those of us with the same sickness can play and eat together but nobody else can.”

In an effort to curb stigmatization and do away with the myths, Mataley said the county has taken on a new approach to help spread awareness to the locals.

“What we are doing now is the ‘School-Based Approach,’ where we are trying to incorporate students who dropped from school because of epilepsy,” Mataley said.

“Even parents [themselves] are denying their children with epilepsy from going to school,” Mataley said. “There is no need to stop a child from going to school because of epilepsy.”

As the county struggles to make inroads against misconceptions about epilepsy and other mental illnesses, Mataley said their efforts are hindered by the need for more clinicians in the county.

“We are just three mental health clinicians in the county, and one has already put in a transfer request from here, which means that we shall be left only two and therefore, cannot cover the entire county,” the health worker said.

Featured photo by Eric Doue