ST. PAUL -- A St. Paul school district employee who got permission to take a leave of absence from her job to travel to Sierra Leone to help her father with Ebola has decided not to go to the West African country after all.
Mariama Kpaka-Sengita said Thursday that she decided to cancel her trip because she is worried she might get stuck in Africa for an extended period of time.
“The decision is based on the best interests of my children,” the mother of two children said.
Kpaka-Sengita, 31, a positive behavior coach with the St. Paul public school district, had planned to leave for Sierra Leone on Sunday. She said she wasn’t planning to care for her father directly, but wanted to make sure he was being treated in a hospital. She said she now hopes to get the American Red Cross to help her father on her behalf.
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The St. Paul resident came to the United States from Sierra Leone when she was a child.
