Ebola Soliders

Rachel Unkovic

Stories of the front line fighters who stopped the spread of Ebola and saved the lives of millions

This installation is a part of Inside Voices: An Oral History Exhibition, showcasing multimedia projects and stories recorded by the 2016 cohort of Columbia University’s Oral History MA program. This event will take place at The Social Hall at Union Theological Seminary on April 27, 2017, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.

After washing your hands with a chlorine solution and checking your temperature with an infrared thermometer, you'll be allowed into the space of the exhibit. You'll see the building, training, and usage of an isolation unit, as well as a journey through the Sierra Leone countryside to a village directly impacted by Ebola. It'll be claustrophobia: you'll be pushed forward into the center, where a table will include photos and stories of the Sierra Leoneans and people from other African countries who made up the bulk of the response—those who stopped the spread of Ebola past the borders of West Africa and annilated it within their countries.

Rachel Unkovic holds a Master of Arts in Conflict Transformation from SIT Graduate Institute, and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Trinity College. She has worked for the International Rescue Committee in the field of humanitarian aid since 2009, based in DR Congo and Iraq, and with extended travel to ten other countries in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa.