UNIFICATION TOWN, Liberia—Feimata Dunoh once operated an orphanage outside Monrovia for children uprooted by years of civil war. Ebola has put her back in business.

Since August, nearly 40 children recently orphaned by the virus have turned up at her dusty compound of low-slung brick buildings. They play around a fire used for cooking while Ms. Dunoh works her cellphone in search of neighbors and relatives willing to take in another mouth to feed.

Finding new parents for orphaned children is a job Ms. Dunoh performed for 13 years, when Liberia teemed with thousands of children who had lost parents during 14 years of almost continuous fighting. The last war-era child left her care in 2011.

To Ms. Dunoh’s dismay, children bereaved by Ebola are now proving an even tougher sell than those who lost parents to bullets and machetes during those nightmarish years.

“Ebola is making us even afraid of our own children,” she said. “If they come out alone, it will be worse than the last time. This society will not be at peace.”