As Ebola disrupts livelihoods, Chance keeps building a future for her child

After conflict forced Chance to flee from her village, she built a small maize-flour business to support her child. Now, as Ebola disrupts markets and spreads fear, she is determined to protect the future she is creating. 

Every bag of maize flour Chance sells from her home brings her closer to one goal - giving her young child a good education. Her business is small, but it represents something much bigger, the chance to earn her own income and plan for their future. 

Chance fled her village in 2018 because of conflict. She was studying at the time but left school when she became pregnant. Her parents helped her through that period. After giving birth, she began looking for a way to support herself and her baby. 

When Chance received cash assistance and business advice from ActionAid, she decided to divide the money between her family’s immediate needs and a longer-term plan. She paid part of her hospital bill, bought milk for her baby and used what remained to buy maize flour. Those choices became the foundation of her business. 

Her days start with caring for her child and preparing breakfast before turning to the work that keeps the business going. Each sale matters. Chance wants to be able to meet her family’s needs and, when her child starts school, pay the fees without having to ask others for money. 

The Ebola outbreak has made that path more uncertain. Across Ituri, fear of infection and restrictions on movement are limiting trade and access to markets. A recent assessment in Nyankunde, Nizi and Bunia found that 58% of households surveyed could not access food markets regularly. For people who depend on small businesses to survive, a disrupted market can quickly become a struggle to buy food or cover other basic costs.  

“Lately, I’ve been really scared of Ebola,” Chance says. “There are lots of reports about what Ebola can do to children, and that’s why I’m so scared.” 

Fear has been made worse by rumours. Chance heard false claims that health workers, rather than Ebola, were killing people. At first, she doubted that the disease was real. After taking part in a community awareness session, she came to understand that Ebola exists and that the danger to her family is real. 

Ebola is disrupting the local economy around Chance and bringing fear into the home where she works and raises her child. Yet she continues to sell maize flour and hold on to the plan she made for their future. Her determination is not abstract. It is visible in the business she keeps running and in the choices, she makes each day.  

“The business I am doing now is what will help my child and me in our future,” she says. “My child will study in a good school.”