By Lynn Pelton | Executive Director
Dear friend,
We are so appreciative of your support this year and in the past to Greatest Goal Ministries USA. The West African Ebola outbreak has finally ended in Sierra Leone and Guinea but after having been declared Ebola free for months Liberia recently announced three new cases. Flare ups in all three countries may continue indefinitely until a vaccine is found. The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has lasted over 18 excruciating months with over 11,000 lives lost. This is the longest Ebola outbreak in human history.
The effects from this crisis will be felt for years to come due in part to the loss of so many medical personnel, and health care to the general population was severely curtailed during the epidemic. Clinics and hospitals are only just now reopening to the general public and only with strict Ebola screening procedures in place. The countries and healthcare centers will need to remain vigilant.
A few years ago I found a familiar quote from Augustine Burrough’s, “When you have your health you have everything. When you do not have your health, nothing else matters”. Imagine living in a country that essentially had to stop providing any basic health care for over 18 months because the risk was just too great.
This is why Greatest Goal Ministries is so excited to report that we have finished construction of our new, freestanding Ebola triage and screening center, patient holding area and community education center as well as an incinerator. Pictures from construction are included in this report. It is important to understand that in order to keep our staff and the community safe we must continue to monitor and screen perhaps indefinitely for any signs of new Ebola outbreaks.
With construction completed our free outpatient facility can reopen after the first of the year providing health care to a community that has been suffering terribly since the epidemic began.
We hope that you can continue to support our work and help us raise the funds needed to train staff, purchase needed supplies and continue to provide free medications and lab tests for people who can barely afford to eat and therefore will fill their belly rather than use what little they have for healthcare. Most of the deaths are unnecessary and due to easily treated and supported conditions such as malaria, cholera, pulmonary infections, skin infections, hypertension, diabetes. But if you cannot afford the care then you suffer even more.
Thank you for your donations and we look forward to the next report announcing our opening!!
Happy Holidays and wishing you and yours the best in 2016.
By Lynn Pelton | Executive Director
By Lynn Pelton | Executive Director Greatest Goal Ministries USA
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