At training centers run by the United States in Liberia and by the United Kingdom in Sierra Leone, we saw young people lining up to volunteer. I stopped a number of them, asking what was motivating them to take part in the Ebola response. With the economy in complete free fall and unemployment surging, for some it was the lure of a day’s wages. But for most, it was the simple desire to help. As one young man in Sierra Leone told me, “If we leave our brothers and sisters to die, who knows, it might be us next. It is a point of duty.”
