( CNN ) Today , Katie Meyler might be meeting with Google executives or maybe giving a talk at the United Nations about girls ' education , poverty or Ebola . But just a few months ago , she was on the front lines fighting the Ebola epidemic in Liberia . `` I think anybody that has any feelings for the countries in West Africa that were hit was feeling helpless , '' Meyler said . Meyler had spent the last nine years of her life in Liberia setting up the More Than Me Academy , a tuition-free school for at-risk Liberian girls . While she was on summer break last year , visiting her family in the United States , her mind kept going back to Liberia and the Ebola outbreak . She could n't sit idle as her neighbors , friends and students were fighting for their lives . Meyler , who is not a medical professional , flew back to the front lines of a global epidemic , the last place most Americans wanted to be during the outbreak . Back in Liberia , Meyler quickly realized that fighting Ebola would be more complicated than administering medical care . With dozens of aid organizations descending on the country , few of them had a history or relationship with it . Meyler saw an opportunity to leverage her relationship with the community of West Point , the slum in which her school is located . Her ability to speak the Liberian-English dialect facilitated logistics . `` The people knew what was needed , '' Meyler said . `` They knew what to do . They just did n't have the resources . '' Her organization met with community leaders and they decided more ambulances were needed . In some instances , it took up to four days for an ambulance to show up . Meyler was able to bring in four ambulances and coordinate with the fathers of her students , who responded to calls by driving the ambulances . Meyler and community leaders identified what was most needed and then came up with steps to meet those needs , said Meyler . Next , they formed a group of active case finders , people who would go door to door in the poorest parts of West Point , looking for anyone that had fallen ill. Once a sick person was identified , a nursing team was dispatched to determine the next steps and treatment . The hardest part for Meyler , who often describes herself as a `` big kid , '' was seeing children abandoned and orphaned by Ebola . According to UNICEF , 16,600 children have lost one or both parents to Ebola in Guinea , Liberia and Sierra Leone . Meyler 's school turned one of its guesthouses into Hope 21 , a place to quarantine children suspected of having the Ebola virus . During the good times and the bad , Meyler took to Instagram to post photos and her thoughts . For nearly 100,000 of her followers , her Instagram became a window into the battle against Ebola . Social media have played a major role in the success of Meyler 's organization since its inception nine years ago . To launch More Than Me , she did everything from fund-raising on MySpace to participating in clinical research studies . In 2012 , the group was awarded a $ 1 million grant from JPMorgan Chase 's American Giving Awards , after Facebook users voted for the organization . Long before Meyler became an Ebola fighter , she grew up in a working-class family from New Jersey . She always felt underprivileged , until she became involved in community service . That 's when she decided to dedicate her life to helping people . Meyler has since won a number of awards and has been recognized for her work in Liberia . She was one of the Ebola fighters honored as Time 's Person of the Year in 2014 . `` I 'm not the same person that I was before Ebola hit , '' said Meyler . Reflecting on the months she spent fighting Ebola , she said , `` The people on the front lines that were risking their lives were the people who were fighting for their own lives , who were fighting for their children 's lives . '' Now it is about learning to live with Ebola , said Meyler , whose school has dozens of students who are Ebola orphans and survivors . Meyler continues to focus on girls and education in Liberia , meeting with tech giants and innovative education labs to come up with ways to better serve her students at More Than Me .
Meyler worked with the community in Liberian slum to develop Ebola response . Dozens of Ebola orphans now attend United Nations .