Dear Friends, a bit of a long post but I implore you to give it a look. Apologies. It has been a while since I have mentioned our progress with the Sam Brisbane Fund. As you must be hearing on the news, the ebola outbreak in West Africa is the largest the world has ever seen. There is no local, regional, national or pan-African capacity to stop the spread of the virus or treat those who are dying. Our friends call nearly daily to tell us about the anxiety among the population, the high cost of food and the social isolation resulting from the daily curfew and pop-up quarantines. Liberia, more than all other nations battling the disease, has been particularly hard hit. There is no more room in existing ebola treatment centers there, and the global offer of aid, while increasing, remains wholly inadequate. A video from the NYT features the cholera unit of JFK Hospital which has been converted to an ebola treatment facility and is being run by MSF. It is located outside the main hospital campus: nytimes/video/world/africa/100000003071418/burial-boys-of-ebola.html?playlistId=100000003105684 Our contacts tell us that what is needed is massive military and medical response that is more similar to the response to the Indonesian Tsunami. Although the death toll form the Ebola outbreak is far lower, the complexities of management are similar in scope. Our colleagues at JFK hospital in Monrovia have reopened most of the hospital. A few brave nurses and doctors have returned to the main hospital and the maternity hospital is up and running. These healthcare providers understand that while ebola burns through the country, people still need routine healthcare. Lack of access to care for malaria, routine surgery, etc. has the potential to kill far more people in Liberia than Ebola - and it probably already is. This weekend Ill be posting a few stories from JFK in Monrovia, and I hope you will share them with your family, friends and co-workers. Weve raised a lot of money already to support our colleagues at JFK, but were only about 1/4 towards our ultimate goal and only 45% to our initial campaign goal. This is an urgent plea for you to help. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation just announced that they are providing $50M in aid to support PPE, etc. This is a welcome and bold move. Weve made a commitment to ensure that funds raised through the Brisbane Fund complement massive aid efforts and not waste money by duplicating them on such a small scale that they wont be effective. However, our commitment to JFK and the delivery of routine healthcare is unique. Few people in Liberia or in the world have been able to focus on the infrastructure needs of this massively important hospital - particularly around healthcare worker safety (which directly relates to them reporting for work) and emergency management/systems/infection control (which impacts their ability to work once they get there). Will you consider helping this weekend? If you have already donated, would you consider another small gift? Even $5 or $10? Most importantly, will you commit to sharing this message or helping us share it? Invite us to your church group, let us talk to your social club, repost this on your wall, send an email to your colleagues. Were committed to making a difference quickly but we need help. As we are finding out in real-time, there is someone else in the world right now rushing to help. It is going to have to be us. And while we are ill-equipped to manage it, we have no choice but to try.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 10:50:15 +0000
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