To the Sierra Leone Diaspora in Holland, The American Health Department CDC today warned that Sierra Leone is heading for catastrophe. MSF let us know it was overwhelmed as early as June. #Ebola is real. Ebola is killing our people in Sierra Leone. Ebola is killing the economy. Ebola is killing daily life. WHO expects that 20.000 people will get infected, based on current registrations of Ebola cases. In reality, it will be much more. Ebola has crippled Sierra Leone for three months now, and counting. The past epidemics in other countries have shown us that Ebola can be contained relatively easy. If the means, materials and people are available to fight it, Sierra Leone should be able deal with Ebola too. And here lies the problem. CDC, WHO and MSF complain that ‘the world’ does not seem to care about the small, poor West-African countries to step in and knock the epidemic down. Although true, it is somehow unfair to put blame on people in other countries who are not in any way related to the Ebola stricken countries. Many of them never even heard of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea before. And let us be realistic, how can we expect strangers to care about people in Sierra Leone if our own people in the diaspora don’t care enough about their own families in the Ebola hot zone? Sierra Leone has a huge diaspora in (for example) The Netherlands. There is a registered NGO fighting for Sierra Leone. It was set up in the first week of August. Since then, we have not had that much support from the Sierra Leonean community here. Backtalk, accusations, infighting, and jealousy seem to be more interesting to discuss over and over again, instead of contributing positively to the country you came from. Your family members in Sierra Leone are living in fear every day. Their lives are at stake. The lives of 6 million people are threatened by Ebola, by more hardship due to a collapsing economy, by tension, suspicion and trauma. Schools are closed. Businesses are crippled. The Ebola epidemic will have consequences for years. They need your help. Let me repeat that: THEY NEED YOUR HELP. They do not need your endless discussions, your ‘bad at’, fityai, kongosa. It is doing them more harm than good. What really is ten euros to you? It is two meals. Or 8 beers. You spend a tenfold of that on a night in town. And yet, it seems to be too much to ask to contribute to your backyard, where the fire is spreading and threatening your very house? The selfishness is shocking. Many of you go on holidays to Sierra Leone every few years. You come to bluff and complain about lack of electricity to charge your expensive mobile phones. You come to play big man or big woman, displaying expensive clothes, hairstyles, jewelry and gadgets. Snapping photos on the beach with your iPads. Partying with rarray girls, spreading money around as if it were candy. But when it comes to Ebola, you sit back and watch others do the work. You try to destroy positive and humanitarian initiatives with useless talk. And when all is solved, you will come back to Sierra Leone in the hope, and usually even the expectation, of getting a political position. You expect all that, even though you are contributing to the downfall of the country. Your ‘bizzy body’ and useless Facebook comments are giving the country a bad name and reputation. If at all, you are not willing to do ANYTHING for Sierra Leone, don’t call yourself a Sierra Leonean seemingly knowing Sierra Leone and constantly criticizing people and politics in the country. If you don’t think you should help, you are NOT a Sierra Leonean. You are a Dutch. And in fact, it is the native Dutch people who are showing increasing support for Sierra Leone. The organization against Ebola in the Netherlands has native Dutch volunteers dedicating all their time and effort to Sierra Leone. We are most grateful to them and their good heart. The Foundation SLECTH (Sierra Leone Ebola Campaign Team Hollland) launched the kickebola.org project to directly address the emergency situation. We will help wherever the emergency is highest. Right now, that would be equipping the clinics with medical supplies and improve hygienic circumstances. We would like to present a huge supply of PPE’s (protective gear) to these clinics and other hospitals, to make sure other healthcare facilities can operate. We will remain to be involved with Sierra Leone even in post-Ebola times, to take care of widows and orphans, for example. We are a registered and thus legal NGO in The Netherlands. The Dutch government oversees us and demands transparency. This is the ONLY proper way to raise donations and funds for the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. The board members of the foundation are personally accountable under Dutch law. Small initiatives to collect money, have small impact. Big initiatives create big impact. A foundation is not subjected to taxes on donations. Social clubs are OBLIGED to pay taxes for raised donations. Organizations that do not have the statutory purpose of emergency relief for Ebola in Sierra Leone, are actually not legally permitted nor obliged to spend the collected money on the emergency. If you give money for Ebola emergency relief to an organization that gives scholarships, for example, they are not in any way obliged to spend your money on the Ebola outbreak. They are in fact going against Dutch law if they do. A legal foundation against Ebola in Sierra Leone already exists. You are more than welcome to join us. We want you to. Put your smaller initiatives under this bigger umbrella. Collective initiatives can donate for a specific purpose. Add it to the description of your bank transfer and contact us by phone or email to make your goals known. Your group and its contributions will be mentioned on our website and announced publicly if so desired, on the ‘about us’ page and on the donations page, as well as on Facebook. The foundation is represented in the bigger media in Holland almost every day. Check the ‘in the media’ page on our website. We have gained some political influence. It can be more, with all of your support. Together, we can create an impact. And if you feel you are really unable to donate money, you can at least sign the letter to Dutch government asking for a contribution to WHO financially and with expertise. This week, the Dutch government takes a decision if they will or will not make an extra contribution. Let them know you want them to help. Sign the letter on kickebola.petities.nl, the letter is published in the sidebar of that page and on kickebola.org. In Sierra Leone, organizations are collecting ‘Ebola tax’. They are asking citizens of the non-affected areas to contribute at least 1.000 Leones to contribute to the fight against the epidemic. If they can donate 1.000 Leones, we can surely contribute 10 Euros, not so? STICHTING SIERRA LEONE EBOLA CAMPAIGN TEAM HOLLAND kickebola.org KvK: 61229016 Bank: ING NL15INGB0006596041 [email protected] FB Page: Kick Ebola Out Of Sierra Leone
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 11:23:39 +0000
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