Alice G. WaltonContributor
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Today Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that he and his wife are donating $25 million to the CDC Foundation to help fight Ebola in West Africa. Last month, Bill Gates announced that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would give $50 million toward efforts to stop the outbreak, with money going largely to United Nations agencies and other global organizations, including $5 million earmarked to go to the World Health Organization, $5 million to UNICEF, and $2 million to the CDC. If non-billionaires are wondering what they might to do help, below is a list of organizations that are working hard to fight the crisis in West Africa.
“It has infected 8,400 people so far, but it is spreading very quickly and projections suggest it could infect 1 million people or more over the next several months if not addressed,” Zuckerberg wrote in his Facebook message to the public. “We need to get Ebola under control in the near term so that it doesn’t spread further and become a long-term global health crisis that we end up fighting for decades at large scale, like HIV or polio.“We believe our grant is the quickest way to empower the CDC and the experts in this field to prevent this outcome,” he continued. “Grants like this directly help the front-line responders in their heroic work. These people are on the ground setting up care centers, training local staff, identifying Ebola cases and much more.”
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director Thomas Frieden has also said that the spread of the disease can still be stopped in the most active regions of West Africa, but time is clearly running out. Today, World Health Organization (WHO) said that although some of the most active regions were showing signs of a slowing spread, they predicted that new infections could soon reach 10,000 per week. Global efforts are finally ramping up, but there is an extraordinary amount of work to be done, and an uncertain road ahead.
The following organizations are working hard to stop the spread of Ebola in West Africa. They are accepting donations to go to everything from deploying healthcare workers to the hardest-hit regions to shipping medical and disinfecting supplies to the affected areas to launching public awareness campaigns about how the virus spreads.
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Doctors without Borders/Medecins sans Frontieres has worked tirelessly to help reign in the outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Senegal. The organization began responding to the outbreak back in March 2014, and has over 3,000 people deployed to help the affected regions. To date, they have lost 9 of the 16 medics who have contracted Ebola in West Africa.
The CDC Foundation has deployed 100 staff members to the region since July 2014, as well as 700 support staff working on the disease remotely. The foundation provides surveillance, contact tracing, database management, health education, and helps in the hiring of locally employed staff. They also provide supplies and equipment, including protective equipment, infection control tools, ready-to-eat meals, generators, vehicles, and supplies at airports (e.g., thermal scanners to detect fever).
The American Red Cross, part of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, has over 4,000 volunteers in affected regions in West Africa, and 150 Red Cross delegates. Among their many endeavors, the organizations have opened the first treatment clinic in Sierra Leone; they have also provided psychosocial support in the region, as well as been active in training health workers in handling bodies, disinfecting equipment, disposing of waste, and increasing public awareness.
International Medical Corps has built the sixth treatment center in Liberia, which is only the second outside the capital, Monrovia. They are also working on building a new center in Sierra Leone, which they anticipate will be finished in late October 2014. They also provide “Ebola 101” training for local organizations, and are engaged in discussions with the UN and U.S. agencies and organizations to collaborate in addressing the spread of the disease.
AmeriCares is sending shipments of medical supplies, including medicines and IV fluids; Clorox bleach; and protective gear for healthcare workers to Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Samaritan’s Purse is working in Liberia, the country that has been hardest hit by the disease, to provide caregiver training and healthcare kits and public education about the disease in the region.
UNICEF USA is working to help children and young people who have been affected by Ebola in West Africa, and have sent emergency medical supplies to affected regions. They estimate that there are 3,700 children orphaned by Ebola. Gifts to help Ebola victims and their families will be met with a 1-to-1 match by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.
Save the Children is also doing work for victims of Ebola, by helping build treatment centers, providing health care, and relief for orphans. Gifts will be matched up to $250,000 by an anonymous donor.
GlobalGiving’s Ebola Relief Fund is raising money for medical supplies, protective gear for health workers, and public awareness campaigns. They have over $250,000 left to go of their original $1 million goal.
For an extensive list of organizations accepting donations for the fight against Ebola in West Africa, please see the Center for International Disaster Information (CIDI) website.
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