October 20, 2014
With the global Ebola outbreak dominating recent news coverage, many of the Community Foundation’s donors have either given to fight the deadly disease or requested additional information on the most effective organizations worthy of a donation. Given the disease’s potential for widespread harm, the concern is well-placed and the desire to learn more especially astute.
Our friends in the philanthropic community have done yeoman’s work classifying the primary areas for giving – fighting the disease at the source, readying medical centers for a widespread outbreak, and working towards a vaccine or cure – and we are pleased to recommend the following organizations that we believe are working towards one or more of these objectives:
Doctors Without Borders’ (click here) West Africa Ebola response started in March 2014 and now counts activities in three countries: Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. It currently employs 276 international and around 2,977 locally hired staff in the region. The organization operates six Ebola case management centers (CMCs), providing nearly 600 beds in isolation. Since the beginning of the outbreak, MSF has admitted more than 4,500 patients, among whom more than 2,700 were confirmed as having Ebola. Around 1,000 have survived.
Partners in Health (click here), under the leadership of co-founder Dr. Paul Farmer, is leading a coalition to combat this outbreak, working alongside two outstanding grassroots organizations—Last Mile Health in Liberia and Wellbody Alliance in Sierra Leone. These longtime PIH partners are already working to train health workers, identify sick patients, and deliver quality care. As the epidemic advances, these groups need support to provide comprehensive prevention, care, and treatment.PIH is actively recruiting clinicians, logisticians, and other health system professionals to support the work of Last Mile Health and Wellbody Alliance.