Canadian government grants $2.6 million to Samaritan's Purse to continue Ebola fight
Organization using funds for community/household-based prevention & care program in Liberia
CALGARY, Nov. 27, 2014 /CNW/ - The Canadian government's Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development is giving Samaritan's Purse Canada $2.6-million to help the Christian relief and development organization continue its months-long fight against Ebola in the West African nation of Liberia.
Samaritan's Purse will use the funds to significantly expand its public education campaign—reaching out to an additional 35,000 Liberian households that have not yet been infected with Ebola—to prevent further transmission of the terrible disease that has already caused more than 5,600 deaths. The households will also receive infection prevention and control kits (containing basic hygiene items) to help protect them.
Samaritan's Purse has already provided Ebola preventative education to more than 1.5 million Liberians, and provided prevention and control kits to more than 8,200.
The federal funding will also enable Samaritan's Purse to provide equipment and training so at least 500 households in which a family member has already been infected with Ebola can safely and effectively care for that individual at home.
Many Ebola-infected Liberians are unable or unwilling to seek treatment at a medical facility—often because the facilities are far away or already at capacity. The safest and most effective alternative in treating these patients without endangering other members of their community is by training family members to care for them appropriately.
Through Samaritan's Purse's efforts, Ebola-infected families are receiving Ebola treatment kits (including modified personal protective equipment, disinfectant supplies, and medications) and helpful instructions.
"By breaking the chain of transmission, the spread of Ebola can be curbed," said Fred Weiss, Executive Director of Samaritan's Purse Canada. "We're very thankful for federal government support in addressing this urgent and desperate need." In total, an estimated 213,000 Liberians will benefit from the funding.
During the next year, based on experts' projections of how many additional Ebola infection cases there will be, Samaritan's Purse anticipates needing $5 million to:
- Continue focusing almost half of its 360 Liberia-based staff—none of whom has contracted Ebola after receiving the same training and equipment they are providing to others—on the household-based program
- Provide essential help for its staff to stop Ebola "flare-ups" as they occur—often in isolated communities that require significant effort and resources to reach
- Begin community recovery programs once the virus is contained
"The $2.6 million grant we've just received from the Canadian government provides more than half the $5 million we need, and so we are enormously grateful," Weiss said. "We are appealing to the compassion of individual Canadians to provide the remaining funds. Please join us in being Good Samaritans in Liberia."
DONATIONS: Canadians can donate at SamaritansPurse.ca/Ebola or by phoning 1-800-663-6500.
Samaritan's Purse has been working in Liberia for 13 years. The Calgary-based charity has more than 360 staff in Liberia, including about 350 native Liberians and several Canadians. Together, they were involved in a variety of relief and development projects until last March, when the Ebola outbreak began. Since then, they have been exclusively focused on fighting the virus that has claimed more than 2,900 lives so far in Liberia, and more than 5,600 throughout all of West Africa.
About Samaritan's Purse Canada
Samaritan's Purse is a Christian relief and development organization that takes its name from Jesus Christ's biblical story of the Good Samaritan. Like that Good Samaritan, who found a beaten man and helped restore him, we aid victims of war, disease, disaster, poverty, famine, and persecution. Our other initiatives include Operation Christmas Child, which sends gift-filled shoeboxes from caring donors to hurting children worldwide. Learn more at SamaritansPurse.ca.
Backgrounder - Liberia's Ebola Crisis, and Samaritan's Purse's Response
- Liberia is an impoverished West African nation that, before the Ebola virus outbreak, was still recovering from 14 years of civil war.
- Samaritan's Purse has been fighting Ebola since March 2014. Its response has included the deployment of several Canadian staff, including medical personnel, for limited engagements.
- The Ebola outbreak has reached a critical point where:
- The health care system is crippled, with over 340 health care workers dying from Ebola
- All of Liberia's schools have been closed for several months, affecting 1.4 million children
- The Ebola outbreak has damaged an already struggling economy, with food prices increasing 40 percent.
- The current national response, coordinated by the United Nations and the World Health Organization, consists of a three-tiered system:
- Take a patient to an Ebola Treatment Unit if one is accessible and has space.
- Take a patient to a Community Care Center if one is accessible and has space.
- Home-based care, backed by suitable training and equipment, when the other two options are available.
- In early October, Samaritan's Purse sent 100 tons of protective equipment and supplies to Liberia on a Boeing 747 cargo jet, including inflatable tents for the setup of Community Care Centers.
- Two of our 15 planned Community Care Centers are operational, one in Lofa County, and one in River Gee County. These centers are focused on rural areas throughout Liberia that are hardest hit by Ebola, including near the outbreak's epicenter along the border with Guinea. However, because Ebola cases have been found in all of Liberia's 15 counties, it is impossible to construct and operate enough treatment facilities for all Ebola patients throughout Liberia.
- As Liberia's Ministry of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notify our staff of hotspots in our targeted counties, teams are deployed with household intervention kits (to treat Ebola patients) and infection prevention and control kits (to prevent the spread of Ebola). Our aviation department enables us to reach the most isolated communities which often do not have road access.
- Household intervention kits contain a raincoat, rubber boots, mask, goggles, gloves (all reusable after spraying with chlorine-based decontaminant), medications, and disinfectant supplies.
- Infection prevention and control kits include soap, industrial strength gloves, and chlorine.
- Samaritan's Purse has distributed more than 8,200 infection prevention and control kits in River Gee, Lofa, Gbarpolu, Grand Kru, and Monrovia so far.
- Since the outbreak began in March, Samaritan's Purse has reached more than 1.5 million individuals with Ebola prevention messaging.
- In areas with Ebola-infected individuals, our trained national staff meet with the primary caregivers and community leaders, set up an isolation tent (if one is needed), provide body bags for burials, and train households to dig burn pits to dispose of contaminated materials that can't be reused. As part of our training, we offer a poster that clearly and simply shows Liberians how to care for infected family members while protecting themselves. Here. Is the poster, which has been distributed all over Liberia.
About Samaritan's Purse Canada
Samaritan's Purse is a Christian relief and development organization that takes its name from Jesus Christ's biblical story of the Good Samaritan. Like that Good Samaritan, who found a beaten man and helped restore him, we aid victims of war, disease, disaster, poverty, famine, and persecution. Our other initiatives include Operation Christmas Child, which sends gift-filled shoeboxes from caring donors to hurting children worldwide. Learn more at SamaritansPurse.ca.
SOURCE: Samaritan's Purse Canada
News Media Inquiries: Jeff Adams, Communications Director, Samaritan's Purse Canada, 1.800.663.6500 ext. 8723, or (cell) 403.615.8747, [email protected]
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