The Ebola outbreak has affected thousands of lives and strained fragile health care and social systems. An effective response to Ebola must strengthen existing community systems, including local organizations that provide timely, culturally appropriate, and lifesaving services. These organizations play a key role in rebuilding their communities long after the outbreak. Africa Responds is mobilizing funds to support grassroots organizations fighting Ebola in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Parts of West Africa are facing the largest Ebola outbreak in history. The epidemic has affected over 17,000 people, claimed over 6,000 lives, and orphaned over 3,000 children. Also, social services like education and health have been interrupted. While there is increasing attention on Ebola, the virus continues to spread in rural parts of Liberia and in most of Sierra Leone and Guinea. This spread is largely due to misinformation, stigma, and lack of adequate prevention and care services.
Africa Responds is mobilizing funds to support 4 local organizations in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Our grassroots partners are providing preventive community education and hygiene kits, training community health workers, and caring for families affected by Ebola. They are well positioned for this response because they have been serving their communities long before Ebola, have built trust, credibility and buy-in, and are able to offer timely, adaptable, and culturally relevant services.
Our partners will reach at least 30,000 people with large-scale community education campaigns, 4,000 people will receive hygiene kits, and 500 health workers will be trained to provide direct health services. By supporting local groups directly, we aim to increase their response capacity, efficiency, and effectiveness. We also believe their experience in stemming this outbreak will leave communities stronger and better prepared to face future emergencies.
This project has provided additional documentation in a DOCX file (projdoc.docx).
