On Wednesday, October 8, 2014, World Renew hosted a lively Q&A at www.facebook.com/worldrenew.
Mary Crickmore, World Renew West Africa Team Leader, and Wayne de Jong, Director of World Renew Disaster Response & Rehabilitation, answered your questions about the Ebola Crisis.
On Wednesday, October 8, 2014, World Renew hosted a lively Q&A at www.facebook.com/worldrenew.
Mary Crickmore, World Renew West Africa Team Leader, and Wayne de Jong, Director of World Renew Disaster Response & Rehabilitation, answered your questions about the Ebola Crisis.
Thanks to all who participated! The questions and answeres are captured below.
Question:
22 SEPTEMBER 2014 ¦ GENEVA Unless Ebola control measures in West Africa are enhanced quickly, experts from the WHO and Imperial College, London, predict numbers will continue to climb exponentially, and more than 20 000 people will have been infected by early November, according to a new article in the New England Journal of Medicine. My question: what is your reaction to this statement, and do you sense we will be seeing these numbers by November?
Answer:
Mary – I have more confidence in the 1 million numbers as the possibility that we have to be prepared for and the motivation for us to act. That is based on the experience in the 1300's with Bubonic Plague. It killed half the population of Europe.
Question:
Are people who have recovered from ebola being mobilized to actively care for sick patients? Do they have complete immunity?
Answer:
Mary – What I have heard is that they do have immunity. I don't have information yet on how Christian Health Association may be using volunteer survivors.
Question:
Doctors without borders had good ideas early on in May. What are they saying now to contain this and stop the spread of the virus?
Answer:
Mary – The screening needs to happen at exit points, and that is already happening. Most flights from Ebola affected countries land in Brussels, Paris, London so you can't internsively screen everyone coming from those airports to the US. Doctors without Borders continues to emphasize the need for speed and resources. I agree with them.
Question:
What is the screening that they are using on passengers before they leave Ebola affected countries?
Answer:
Mary – Taking their temperatures. Any fever pulls you aside and probably can't get on the flight.
Question:
There are many conflicts and needs in the world right now – how do you prioritize your responses? What is the best way for individuals and churches to help specifically with the Ebola crisis?
Answer:
Mary – I personally am giving funding support to two major needs right now: Ebola and Syrian refugees. That's because I am particularly aware of these needs and I know that World Renew does npt have enough funds yet for these.
So what churches and individuals can do–spread the word!!!! Pray. Give what you can.
Question
I've heard in the media there aren't enough aid organizations responding to this crisis. The funds are available but aid organizations are hesitating due to fear of contracting the disease themselves.
Do you see this happening? What is World Renew doing?
Answers:
Mary – There is indeed a shortage of nurses and doctors willing to respond. World Renew doesn't directly recruit and send medical staff, many of our collaborating agencies like Medical Teams International specialize in that.
Wayne – There is also a significant funding shortfall, and World Renew is seeking to boost support to our partners!
Mary – Also to add, World Renew has strong linkages with Sierra Leoneans and Liberians who are already there and working, they just need the resources to do it.
Wayne – Our partners are doing amazing, courageous work! Please keep them in your prayers.
Question:
We've been hearing contradictory information related to food production. On the one hand, FEWS has said that: "harvests are expected to be average or above average, with rural farming hhs expected to meet the majority of their staple food needs through their own production in the short term." On the other hand, FAO has said :"the main harvest season for two key crops – rice and maize – is just weeks away. Labor shortages on farms due to movement restrictions and migration to other areas will seriously impact farm production, jeopardizing the food security of large numbers of people, the alert says.
(https://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/242177/icode/)
Answers:
Mary – It is going to be very regional-dependent. In the villages that produce rice, where the people work their own farms, they should be OK. Fishing villages who buy rice from outside are pretty desperate. Urban areas who import their food from the rural will have huge problems. In a couple more months we will know more.
Wayne – Hi Matt, the restrictions on movement and the labour shortages will pose a significant challenge for the upcoming harvesting and marketing of rice and maize.
Question:
Is there an easy to use one page resource with facts that you would recommend in getting youth in our youth group to pray for this issue?
Answer:
Maria Tanya Oliveira – Absolutely! I am one of our Church Relations staff and we can pull a document together for you. Send me an email at [email protected] to let me know when you'll need it for and we'll get this together.
Question
How are the preventative measures going? Educating people on the spread of Ebola?
Answers:
Wayne – It is a huge challenge to reach people, but our partners have developed very good materials and posters and are conducting training programs in communities all over Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Mary – The key that is making this work is doing it in the local languages that people understand. Sierra leone alone has 22 languages.
Question:
World Renew sent a shipment of supplies to Liberia recently. How were these distributed and by whom are they being used?
Answer:
Mary – They were air freighted to Christian Health Association, who has worked for years supplying private Christian hospitals and clinics. They are distributing to their members.
Question:
I am sharing this thread on my page and want to ask some questions that are perhaps in the minds of others. Are supplies unavailable in the Ebola stricken areas? Is that why we are shipping supplies from the US? And what are those supplies?
Answers:
Wayne – CHAL is doing an excellent job, and we hope to be able to provide additional shipments of urgently needed supplies. There are not enough supplies available in the region. We are actually shipping from Europe through IMRES, with the excellent assistance of MAP International.
Mary – You are right that supplies are unavailable. Almost all medical supplies in West Africa are imported. We shipped gloves, face masks, thermometers, IV solution.
Question:
Aside from the obvious immediate effects of the outbreak that are being responded to (i.e. disease infections, death, etc.), what other ripple effects are organizations beginning to see in countries where the outbreak is evident? (i.e. cases of hunger, market prices plummeting, violence, stigmatization, trauma, etc.)
Answers:
Wayne – People are afraid to go to markets, or work their fields. Many are afraid to go to hospitals and clinics when they are ill, and are dying from preventable diseases such as malaria. Food prices are also increasing due to food shortages. Food assistance is expected to be a huge need in the coming months.
Mary – The trauma that you mentioned is a huge factor. Trauma healing can be done in the future but it is not possible now as the epidemic is expanding. There is huge disruption in transport of food supplies from farmers to the town. That also has no good solution since they have had to clamp down on movement of people.
Question:
The best way to assist World Renew with their efforts is prayer and money?
Answer:
Mary – And also spread the word to your friends! Also – political advocacy with your government, say that you are in favor of support to West Africa for the fight against Ebola. What the US is doing is good and should be commended. You can spread the word with your church too. What Christians do in response to Ebola is a witness to the world of loving our neighbor.
Question
I wonder what it would look like to organize a fast to fight Ebola…? As a church leader, I'm thinking of challenging my own congregation to a praying fast…
Answers:
Mary – the fast and pray idea is what the Christians in Kabala Sierra Leone did, many others in the region as well.
(guest) – if you fast, you can save money on not eating, and give that money.
