[ 2014-08-17 ]

Salesian Missions launches emergency fund - Ebola
Salesian Missions launches emergency fund to
assist efforts to contain deadly Ebola outbreak in
West Africa, issues urgent appeal for donations

NEW ROCHELLE, NY (Aug. 15, 2014) Salesian Missions
has launched an emergency fund to assist Salesian
missionaries in Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone
who are working to help contain the deadly
outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa. To
raise money for the fund, the Catholic nonprofit
aid organization has launched an emergency
fundraising campaign and is asking the public for
donations.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared
the epidemic a global health emergency.

“The situation is extremely urgent,” said
Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian
Missions, the U.S. development arm of the
international Salesians of Don Bosco.

“We are hearing from our missionaries in the
affected countries and they are asking for
immediate assistance to help fund their
life-saving efforts.”

According to Fr. Hyde, Salesian missionaries are
reporting that the local health care systems and
government agencies are ill equipped to respond to
the crisis. Additionally, the misinformation and
myths surrounding how the disease is
spread—including that health care workers are
the ones spreading it—is having deadly
consequences.

“People at risk are not properly informed,”
added Fr. Hyde. “This increases the spread of
Ebola because people with symptoms are not seeking
medical attention.”

In Liberia, Salesian missionaries—along with
local volunteers—are working to reach people at
risk in rural areas. They are providing basic
information and instructions from the Ministry of
Health, distributing gloves, long-sleeve shirts,
and disinfecting agents such as chlorine. The
missionaries are reporting that they are in
desperate need of these supplies, which is why
funds are needed.

In Ghana, the Salesian-run Don Bosco Youth Network
of West Africa is heading up an aggressive public
education campaign in an attempt to head off the
kind of humanitarian disaster Ebola has wrought in
neighboring countries.

“In Ghana, basic hygiene and health safety is
limited in the media, despite what’s happening
literally next door,” says David Mensah,
coordinator of the network. “And, given the
porous nature of Ghana’s borders, it is
imperative that we act immediately to inform and
educate so that we may save lives.”

The campaign will use materials for television and
radio broadcast, as well as flyers, posters,
banners, billboards and other visual materials to
be posted throughout the country -- including
remote areas where TV and radio are unavailable.
Don Bosco Network is also developing plans to
share these materials with Salesian youth centers
in Nigeria, which is reporting new cases daily.

Salesian missionaries are also working in Sierra
Leone where, according to the WHO, 40 percent of
the total reported cases of Ebola have occurred.

“They are sharing supplies of rice with other
religious organizations working directly with the
sick in the few hospitals that remain open,”
said Fr. Hyde. “Efforts to contain the outbreak
are an exhausting struggle for our missionaries
who are working at great personal risk.”

The Salesian missionaries are also running their
annual youth camp and are using this as an
opportunity to educate 200 youth in attendance.
They are learning how to properly wash their
hands, how to effectively disinfect surfaces, and
how to adjust cultural habits such as frequent
hugging and handshaking.

The hope is that these young people will then
bring this information back to their families and
communities at the end of each camp day, which
should have an impact on the spread of this deadly
virus.

“We need to reduce the feeling of fear and panic
among the people, and try to educate them through
their children,” said Father Uba, director of
Don Bosco Fambul in Freetown.

Starvation in all of the affected countries is
also a concern and something Salesian Missions is
responding to as part of its emergency appeal.
According to reports from its aid workers in the
field, local markets have been shuttered and many
farmers have died. Many schoolchildren who could
previously count on at least one meal a day from
Salesian schools are left hungry because schools
have been ordered closed by the government in an
attempt to contain the outbreak. So, new (more
expensive) methods of food distribution must be
undertaken.

Salesian Missions is urging the public to donate
to its Ebola Emergency Fund, which will go
directly to support missionaries currently working
on the ground in countries affected by the Ebola
outbreak. Go to www.SalesianMissions.org/ebola to
give

Source - Hannah Gregor

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