by Philippa Garson, IRIN

NEW YORK — Africans living in the US from the three Ebola-affected countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone are under enormous pressure trying to help their families and ravaged communities back home. And they face an additional challenge: stigma.

For the residents of "Little Liberia," one of Liberia's biggest emigrant communities in Staten Island, New York, the path to integration has been strewn with hurdles. Many of the several thousand residents came decades ago as refugees from the civil war in Liberia. Eking out a living, attaining resident status, integrating with at times unfriendly neighbors and, in recent months, helping those families hard hit by Ebola at home, has been an uphill battle.

But when Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian, was diagnosed with Ebola in a Dallas hospital in September, "all hell broke loose here," Oretha Bestman-Yates, president of the Staten Island Liberian community, told IRIN.