Frazier’s visit was cut short, as was her work with Timap for Justice, the country’s largest paralegal network. A former Peace Corps volunteer in Rwanda, Frazier had been helping develop organizational assessment tools and training materials, and observing paralegal activities in Timap’s various offices around the country.

For a year, Frazier worked remotely for Timap as best as she could from the United States. She graduated a year later with a master’s degree in economics and international political and economic development (IPED), and worked as an adjunct professor with Fordham’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs.

In October of 2016, she came back on a yearlong Fulbright scholarship to continue her work with Timap.

“When I was here last time [during the Ebola outbreak], it struck me how much of the epidemic’s consequences weren’t just going to be health-related. There were going to be many more systematic problems related to socioeconomic recovery and access to civil justice issues,” she said.

Her fellowship involves exploring new ways that the legal system can handle civil justice cases, particularly those of a commercial nature. When the Ebola epidemic was in full swing, a great deal of economic activity arose from responding to it. Now that it’s ended, Frazier said the time is right to explore avenues for these cases to be resolved.

“Do we look for cases that involve debt, breach of contract, or land tenure?  Or is it about the total amount of money involved in the claim? What does it look like to handle commercial cases in a way that could alleviate pressure from the legal system through alternative routes? That’s what we’re in the process of looking at,” she said.

Frazier splits her time between Timap’s offices in Freetown, where she writes proposals and reports, and in towns three to six hours away from the capital, where she visits local Timap paralegals and judicial officials to measure the demand for commercial alternative resolution services. Although she is learning Krio, the official language of the country, she still relies on an interpreter who can help her reach speakers of Mende, Temne, or any of the other 17 tongues spoken in the provinces.

Sierra Leone has a formal legal system based on the British Colonial common law that features courts, correctional centers, and police stations. It’s a dualist system though, so local chiefdoms also have a say in some matters, she said.

“As you can imagine, navigating that can get complicated for an ordinary Sierra Leone resident,” said Frazier.

“On top of that, the formal legal system is much more limited in terms physical facilities. The customary legal system has a far wider reach, but it has a slightly different scope. A lot of times, legal aid and access to justice services like Timap are a bridge between those two.”

The work is challenging, and Frazier admits she occasionally feels overwhelmed. But she’s inspired by the camaraderie and resolve that was borne of the efforts of those who worked together to stop the epidemic, as well as her colleagues at Timap.

“It’s very much a transition stage here right now, which I always find to be a fascinating time in a country,” she said. “But it’s very difficult for a lot of people.”

“On a daily basis, Ebola regularly comes up,” said Kathleen “Ellie” Frazier, a student in Fordham’s International Political Economy and Development (IPED) program who was working in Sierra Leone. “I overhear people discussing it on the street and there are awareness posters everywhere.”

Currently, Sierra Leone is the epicenter of an epidemic of the Ebola virus, which causes high fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and sometimes internal bleeding. The virus, for which there is no cure or vaccine, has a case fatality rate of more than 50 percent and remains infectious even after a person has died.

More than 3,069 cases and 1,552 deaths have been reported across West Africa (as of Aug. 28.) So far, 1,026 Ebola cases have been reported in Sierra Leone.

Frazier was stationed in a rural area of Sierra Leone as an intern at Timap for Justice, the country’s largest paralegal network. A former Peace Corps volunteer in Rwanda, she has worked extensively on social justice issues, especially in post-conflict regions. In Sierra Leone, she was working with Timap to develop organizational assessment tools and training materials, and was observing paralegal activities in its various offices.

She was there just a week when Ebola cases began to emerge.

“In the first week I arrived, Ebola was confirmed in the eastern part of the country, marking its departure from the original area along the eastern border with Liberia and Guinea,” she said. Initially, she hesitated about going to Timap’s rural offices. She even thought about leaving the country.

“But, with the exception of one mining company in the east, no one was evacuating their staff. The rural offices I was supposed to work in were not in the most heavily affected districts, so I decided to go.”

Frazier has not known anyone who has contracted the virus, although several Timap staff members fled a city with a major Ebola isolation unit after a prominent teacher there died. She said two of Timap’s offices in the east have been forced to temporarily suspend activities.

Frazier said that misinformation about the virus is rampant. Some Sierra Leoneans doubt it even exists, partly because Ebola symptoms are similar to the common diseases of malaria and Lassa fever. And there are some who insist the disease is a conspiracy, citing that the original contamination area is a stronghold of the opposition political party.

Conflicting messages early on from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health and Sanitation caused further confusion, Frazier said. In more remote rural areas, villagers have even driven out WHO and Doctors Without Borders workers.

Fear also breeds misconceptions, she said. Because of the virus’ high contagion rate, those who test positive for Ebola are immediately transferred to an isolation unit, where loved ones cannot visit. If they die, their bodies are bagged and buried in a designated area, denying family members the opportunity to perform customary funeral rites. As a result, many people see going to the isolation ward as a “death sentence” and resist taking sick family members to health centers or hospitals.

“Some rumors go so far as to say that the wards are fronts for organ harvesting, or that they inject you with the virus once you are admitted,” Frazier said.

Frazier said that those affected by Ebola are facing discrimination. Health professionals are ostracized by friends and family because of their work with victims. Children from affected families have been driven away from school. People refuse to buy goods from affected families.

“Beyond individuals and families, it is likely that the districts most heavily affected will carry a stigma long after this outbreak subsides—whenever that may be.”

Frazier returned to the United States at the end of August.

For more on Ebola, see a Q and A with Fordham Professor Alex van Tulleken, M.D. on Fordham’s news site, www.fordham.edu/news.