Support to quarantined households and house to house sensitisation. The Sierra Leone Ministry of Health reported 5,524 confirmed cases of Ebola in Sierra Leone as of 25th November 2014, although the number of unreported cases is thought to be much higher.  The number of confirmed Ebola fatalities is 1,397, giving an average death rate of 25 percent. Cases have been reported in all 14 districts making this a national emergency.  Currently the most affected districts are Moyamba, Bombali, Tonkolili and Port Loko which are all now under quarantine, restricting travel to and from these areas.  Over half of the country’s 6.3million people live in the quarantined districts. As a result of living in quarantine, many families lack adequate food stocks and NFIs and food security is becoming a serious issue in many areas. A recent (November 2014) WFP report found that people living in the districts of Kailahun and Kenema are using severe food coping strategies more frequently, compared to people in other areas of the country. These are the areas where the most EVD cases have been reported since the start of the outbreak . Many international actors’ focus is on contract tracing, safe and dignified burial and treatment centres. Quarantined households are often not supported by the wider community in any sense- psychologically, emotionally or materially. It is likely that if unaddressed this stigma will continue to exist after the crisis, and force families into social isolation and deeper poverty. Finally, women and girls suffer disproportionately greater impacts in health given a lack of access to information through fewer opportunities for education, as well as their role as care givers and tenders to the sick and dying.  There is a need for humanitarian interventions to protect these vulnerable groups. CAFOD’s partner Trocaire  has conducted a number of group discussions and interviews with local authorities, community based organizations such as women’s groups and key stakeholders in the Ebola response (eg. Ministry of Health, NERC, INGOs, UN agencies and donors) which informed the development of this proposal. Trocaire’s activities will focus particularly on women, adolescent girls and children as prevalent gender norms and inequalities in society increase their risk of infection and abuse and limit their access to health care, protection and food security which are exacerbated by the current Ebola crisis. Meetings with women’s groups have particularly helped form their response. The District Ebola Response Centre in coordination with District Health Management Team will provide the names and locations of quarantined households and assign these to development partners for support on a daily basis. Clear procedures as outlined in the Government SOP will be followed. This also means respecting assigned roles and responsibilities. Therefore this project will complement support provided by other agencies and will work with communities to identify gaps and shortcomings. The packages and psycho social support will take account of the specific needs of children, adolescents and women, for example including sanitary pads for women and toys for children. Trócaire and partners will coordinate at the national level with the WFP and with the Food and Nutrition Directorate of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS). At the district level coordination will be maintained with the District Ebola Response Coordinator and with the DHMT to organize the distribution of packages to quarantine households without duplication. Through this coordination mechanism Trocaire have coordinated with Plan, Welt HungerHilfe (WHH), WFP, UNICEF and the DHMT to ensure that distribution packages are standardised and that programme activities positively complement the activities of other actors.  In addition the social mobilization component of the project includes strategies which are suitable for illiterate people by conducting community-led face to face campaigns and using highly visual IEC materials.