Ebola is wrecking years of health and education work in Sierra Leone and Liberia following their civil wars, forcing many charity groups to suspend operations or re-direct them to fighting the epidemic.

More than a decade of peace and quickening economic growth had raised hopes that the two nations could finally reduce their dependency on foreign aid and budgetary support; now Ebola has undermined those achievements, charity workers and officials say.

"The impact of Ebola will take us completely back to it being a basket case," said Rocco Falconer, CEO of educational charity Planting Promise in Sierra Leone. "The impact on some activities have been simply catastrophic."