GlobalGiving Ebola Epidemic Relief Fund

It's been more than four years since the first cases were reported in what became the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history. Across West Africa, the virus infected more than 28,000 people and claimed more than 11,000 lives, and severely disrupted local economies due to international travel bans and internal quarantine zones.

In response to the epidemic, the GlobalGiving community came together in an inspiring show of solidarity with the people of West Africa—more than 5,000 donors like you raised $3 million to support 44 vetted nonprofits partners engaged in a wide range of efforts to end the outbreak and care for survivors.

As Ebola rapidly spread across Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone in the late summer of 2014, your donations supported our partners providing life-saving medical care, delivering emergency supplies, tracking suspected new cases of the disease, and educating the public about how to avoid transmission. As relief efforts transitioned to focus on long-term recovery, you helped fund care for children orphaned by the outbreak, the reopening of schools, and investments in local health infrastructure to improve community resilience ahead of future natural disasters.

And I'm proud to report that our partners are still hard at work supporting survivors and strengthening Ebola-affected communities:

• Develop Africa's Dream Home for children orphaned by Ebola in Sierra Leone, where more than 3,000 children lost their parents to the epidemic, continues to provide holistic support to the children in their care. Along with ensuring kids have food, clothing, counseling, and psychosocial support, they're supporting their education by providing money for school fees and helping students prepare for national exams and entry to college.
• Imani House's clinic in Monrovia serves more than 15,000 Liberians and in the wake of the epidemic has become a leading source of health education in the area. Last year they published their Liberian Women's Health Manual, which grassroots groups of women are using to provide instruction on topics including health, sanitation, nutrition, and human rights to others in communities across the country.
• Touching Humanity in Need of Kindness (THINK) operates a "transit learning center" for children orphaned or otherwise affected by Ebola in Monrovia, where they provide foster care, psychosocial care, and educational support.
• In Sierra Leone, KidSave International continues to find loving homes for children orphaned by Ebola, either through reuniting them with members of their biological family or connecting them with foster care families. Just last month they reported on yet another success story—a boy named Ishmael who had been living in an Ebola care center for three years until KidSave's team was able to reconnect him with Pa, his paternal uncle.
• WeOwnTV is launching WeSurvive: Stories of the Ebola Outbreak to add depth and authenticity to how the Ebola crisis is understood through the sharing of personal testimonials, and to ensure that African voices are included in the telling of African history. The web-based, oral history database will allow users to access a substantial collection of personal video testimonials from Ebola survivors, their family members, and other community members affected by the epidemic.
• Accountability Lab is training Liberian youth to use film as a tool for social change in their communities, so they can counter corruption that can weaken their country's resilience against future epidemics and natural disasters.

I’m sure you’ve seen news about the recent outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We’re thankful that reports indicate this outbreak is being effectively contained, and if you’re interested in supporting efforts on the ground, Oxfam just launched a project on GlobalGiving to fund their work to control the spread of the Ebola.

Thank you again for your support of community-led recovery efforts in West Africa, and for making the smart choice to donate cash to vetted nonprofits responding to the epidemic. While we are closing this fund at this time, I hope you’ll continue to follow the ongoing work of our partners by subscribing to their project updates.

Warmly,
Will Frechette + the GlobalGiving Team

Thanks to your support, our partners in West Africa are continuing to strengthen local community health care systems so that they are better equipped to handle future public health crises and to care for the ongoing needs of survivors and orphans.

With your support, in the last year, Kidsave has helped 101 children return to caring families in Sierra Leone. Most of the children, 66%, were moved into the homes of relatives or family friends. An additional 26% were placed directly into new families. This milestone highlights the long-lasting effects that the Ebola crisis created and the importance of your continued support for locally-led efforts.

Develop Africa’s Dream Home school continues to serve and educate children who were orphaned during the crisis in Sierra Leone. The primary school students recently completed their first round of exams and the older students are working hard towards their certificates as they get ready for the next phase of their education.

In Liberia, Seed Programs International has helped establish a local network of partners, including churches, food banks, farmers, and 4-H Liberia to ramp up local farming efforts after the Ebola crisis. Now three years into their work, SPI has facilitated local efforts to ramp up food production after devastatingly low yields in 2014. Thanks to your support, the community recently received 75,000 packets of seeds and SPI is working on an exit plan now that the efforts are more self-sustaining.

Imani House continues their work to educate the community and power women to be public health educators through their free 63-page "Liberian Women's Health Manual" and accompanying training sessions.

Thank you for your commitment to helping communities across West Africa as they continue to recover and become more resilient. We will keep you updated on additional progress in the coming months!

Warmly,
Kevin Conroy + the GlobalGiving Team

Our nonprofit partners in West Africa remain hard at work three years after the Ebola outbreak in 2014, building more resilient, prosperous communities, strengthening health infrastructure, and empowering children orphaned by the epidemic.

As part of the long-term recovery effort in Liberia, improving public health literacy has been a priority of Imani House. A grassroots organization operating one of the only health clinics serving communities on the outskirts of Monrovia, Imani House recently published and distributed a free 63-page "Liberian Women's Health Manual" throughout local villages, and trained a cohort of local women to be public health instructors for their communities. They're also planning to expand their community development work bringing public latrines to villages without sanitation facilities and launching a new vocational training project.

Seeds Programs International has been supporting small-scale farmers in Liberia as they recover from the long-term economic disruption caused by the outbreak. They've recently focused on helping their partner farmers become more efficient by stocking 11 local "tool banks" with appropriate, reliable farming implements while continuing their longstanding seed distribution program.

In Sierra Leone, Partners in Health's work to rebuild a health infrastructure system devastated by Ebola continued this year, as they opened three new, no-cost birth waiting homes to ensure expecting mothers receive the prenatal care they need and decrease potentially dangerous at-home births.

Develop Africa's 'Dream Home', located in  Freetown, Sierra Leone, continues to provide a loving home and quality education to children who lost both parents to Ebola. Six Dream Home residents are now in high school and 17 of the 22 children were promoted to the next grade level this year.

In recent months, Kidsave International has placed 65 children orphaned during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone with either host or foster care families and reunited another 14 children with family members. Kidsave has also launched a program called "Empower Moms", which is providing cash grants of $75 to 114 working mothers to better support their families.

Alix Halloran, our West Africa Field Traveler, visited Kidsave International in June and had the opportunity to see firsthand the inspiring work their team does every day. "I was so impressed by the Kidsave team because they go the extra mile towards helping these kids," reported Alix.

Many of our nonprofit partners in Sierra Leone, including those continuing to support Ebola survivors and their communities, were impacted by the mudslides that occurred in and around Freetown in August, claiming an estimated 1,000 lives and leaving more than 3,000 people homeless. If you’re interested in supporting relief efforts, we’ve  launched a Sierra Leone Mudslide Relief Fund that’s supporting immediate needs of survivors and long-term recovery. 

We look forward to sharing more inspiring stories from our partners in the coming months. Until then, thank you for your commitment to helping communities across West Africa continue to recover and become more resilient. 

Warmly,
Britt Lake + the GlobalGiving Team

The impact of Ebola continues to loom over the countries and communities it devastated since the epidemic started in 2015. Perhaps the most severe impact is on the thousands of children and youth whom the epidemic left parentless. Many of GlobalGiving’s nonprofit partners in the Ebola Epidemic Relief Fund have concentrated their efforts on rebuilding a support-system for them. Today, we want to share four stories with you!

#1- Last month, Kidsave International was overjoyed to be witness to the reunion of a family separated in midst of the Ebola crisis. After losing both parents, 12-year-old Bockarie and his grandmother were reconnected thanks for your donations! Through their project, Kidsave Sierra Leone Ebola Orphan Relief, Kidsave International has reconnected 22 children with their families in the past two months and has found local adoptive families for many more.

#2- It’s been a little over a year since Guinea was declared “Ebola-free”. However, the fear of survivors transmitting the virus and reigniting the epidemic is still prevalent. This fear has lead to school closures and distrust among community members. Your donations to MindLeap’s project, Post-Ebola Guinea: Educate & Empower The Youth serves families facing the lingering impacts of the virus through providing safe centers for young students to be empowered through dance, nutritional classes, and counseling to address the new economic and social pressures felt from the epidemic.

#3- At Develop Africa Inc’s Dream House for orphans in Sierra Leone, birthdays are a big deal! Their project Help Care For Ebola Orphans in Sierra Leone is creating joyful memories for children that are a staunch contrast to earlier memories of watching their communities instantaneously crumble in the face Ebola virus. Your donations to support the Dream Home provide basic and urgent care for twenty-two children while refilling their childhoods’ with hope and happiness.

#4- Lastly, Touch the Nation recently shared that they are close to completing a new home for up to thirty-five orphans. Your donations to their project, Build a home for Ebola orphans in Sierra Leone, aren’t just supplying the construction materials to build the orphanage, they are securing a home and a sense of security for children who lived through the sudden death of their family members.

The world may longer fear the Ebola virus spreading and threatening to take their loved ones, but the impacts of the epidemic are still felt by the most vulnerable. Your support of them is ensuring their future wellbeing! Thank you!

Last week, news broke that a successful Ebola vaccine had been developed. According to the journal article detailing the breakthrough, the vaccine was 100% effective across the 6,000 recipients. This is life-changing news for our partners working in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, and for everyone across the world!

Thanks to your support of the GlobalGiving Ebola Epidemic Relief Fund, dozens of our partners have been able to provide the much-needed support for those communities ravaged by the virus. In light of the great news, I’d like to take some time today to share with you the long-term impact that your donations have had through our partners on the ground.

Seeds Program International is well on their way to making Liberian communities more self-sufficient by providing good quality seed, expertise, and training materials to humanitarian organizations working around the world to alleviate hunger and poverty, issues exacerbated by the Ebola epidemic. Through their Restoration of Educational Advancement Program, SPI provided 30 women with training on taking soil samples, applying fertilizers, and cleaning their produce after a harvest. Not only did these farmers gain skills to make them self-sustaining, but five women were trained to teach future farmers how to provide for their families.

In November alone, Kidsave International helped reunite 24 children affected by the Ebola epidemic with their extended families. At the reunification ceremony, one relative was overjoyed by the opportunity to help their kin. She said, “Today I fulfilled the promise I made to Abu’s parents when they were loaded in the ambulance and taken to Kenema.  They never returned.   I said I would take full responsibility of Abu and his siblings.  Now I will care for them.  They will live with my family and meet their education and health needs.” While stories like this are plenty, Kidsave has identified more than 325 children still in need of support and a loving family.

IsraAID’s efforts have been focused on the psycho-social and emotional support in Sierra Leone over the last few months. Workshops on psycho-social support and anger management, hosted by IsraAID, has reshaped how teachers interact with their students in Sierra Leone. One teacher reflects that, “after participating in the workshop - I now take the time to listen to the students whenever they are late. As a result, I have become closer to my students and they know that I am ready to listen to them whenever they have something to share.”

Your donations to the GlobalGiving Ebola Epidemic Relief Fund have also made possible the following heroic efforts by our amazing partners:

ChildHelp Sierra Leone Girl Power Project provided support for 344 girls, equipping them with the skills to avoid early pregnancy and disease.

Mindleaps brought together 44 of their young students to share how their lives have changed after Ebola and what they learned from Mindleaps.

Two of Accountability Lab’s film school graduates helped plan and execute Liberia’s first TEDx event. Many of the speakers were deeply involved in the response to the Ebola crisis, as well as the process of rebuilding after. Dr. Mosoka Fallah played a leading role in fighting the virus through case detection, surveillance, contact tracing and case management. Brenda Brewer Moore led a team of volunteers who provided homeschooling educational kits to over 5000 out-of-school kids to keep them academically engaged while schools were shut down during the crisis.

Touching Humanity in Need of Kindness (THINK) mobilized 450 young girls and women Liberia to know more about their rights and gain useful life and business skills.

Arthur, of WeOwnTV’s Survivors project, received his U.S. visa and has joined the film team to provide critical input in the editing process of their portrait of the Ebola crisis.

While the vaccine announcement is fantastic news, it is only with the support of nearly 5,500 donors like you, that our partners have the courage and motivation to continue on rebuilding from this crisis. So, thank you so much for your continued support of GlobalGiving and our hard-working partners.