UN staff assist hospitals in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone in their efforts to halt the spread of the Ebola virus. Photo: UN Photos/Facebook
The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) is responding to the Ebola crisis in Western Africa by sending $15,000 through the Action by Churches Together (ACT) Alliance to help people in Liberia detect symptoms and prevent the spread of the disease.
According to a statement from PWRDF, ACT plans to educate 70 trainers in Ebola virus awareness and prevention, who will then train 6,400 people in 16 communities in Bong and Lofa counties near the border of Sierra Leone. An isolation centre is being built at the Phebe Hospital and School of Nursing to provide a place for treating infected patients while minimizing the risk to others using the hospital.
(PWRDF, the Anglican Church of Canada’s relief and development agency, is a member of ACT Alliance, a global grouping of church-based agencies working in emergencies worldwide.)
According to the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO), the outbreak has claimed more than 2,000 lives in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia where almost 4,000 cases have been reported. An unprecedented number of health care workers have been infected and have died. Dr. Margaret Chan WHO director general said this is the largest, most severe and complex Ebola outbreak seen in the nearly 40-year history of this disease.
“Ebola is now being labelled as an African disease, this is not justified, this is unfair and uncalled for. The level of anxiety and fear is high worldwide because of the severity of the disease and there is a lot of misunderstanding,” said Chan, emphasizing that the disease is a global problem.
Early treatment has improved the prospect of survival- about 50 per cent of people infected survive. People must be educated about high risk exposures such as of unprotected care, unsafe burials, taking care of sick family members at home, said Chan, adding that WHO and its partners are training “burial boys” and healthcare workers.
To donate to PWRDF’s Ebola response:
By phone
For credit card donations, contact:
Jennifer Brown
416-924-9199 ext. 355 or 1-866-308-7973
Please do not send your credit card number by email or fax.
By mail
Please make cheques payable to “PWRDF” and mark them for “Ebola” and mail them to:
The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund
The Anglican Church of Canada
80 Hayden St., Toronto, ON
M4Y 3G2