Sierra Leone student waiting to stay in Canada amid Ebola outbreak

A woman from Sierra Leone, who came to Nova Scotia to study, is waiting to hear if she will have to leave Canada amidst the Ebola outbreak in Africa that has so far prevented her from going home.

Yvette Sia Kamanda came to Nova Scotia in July to take a six-month leadership course at the Coady International Institute at St. Francis Xavier University. Her visitor status is set to expire on Tuesday.

Weeks into her study, the Ebola outbreak in her home country worsened and she took action to extend her stay in Canada until it was safe to return home. 

The Coady Institute helped Sia Kamanda apply to extend her visitor status. Her first request was rejected in November and she said the institute hired a lawyer, who helped her re-file right away.

The lawyer representing Sia Kamanda and another student from Sierra Leone told CBC News on Monday that both are legally able to stay in Canada unless Citizenship and Immigration Canada officials reject their applications to extend their visitor status.

The lawyer said their current application is pending. 

More than 2,800 people in Sierra Leona have died of Ebola since the outbreak was confirmed in March.

There are now travel restrictions in place that prevent people from travelling to and from western Africa. This means Sia Kamanda can't get a flight home. Even if she could, she said the city of Freetown — the capital of Sierra Leone — is in quarantine, so she'd be stuck at the airport.

"A lot of areas have been quarantined and it's not even safe for me to go back home for now," she told CBC News last week.

"I have lost a lot of family members … even my eldest sister lost her husband."