As part of the Australian Government’s Humanitarian Partnership Agreement (HPA), Caritas Australia, the Catholic Church’s agency for international aid and development, along with three other Australian humanitarian agencies (World Vision, Save the Children and Plan) have been allocated a total of $2.5 million to provide urgently needed assistance in the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
The funds will be in addition to the Caritas Australia funding for the Emergency Appeal of Caritas Sierra Leone and will enable the Caritas network in Sierra Leone to provide assistance to almost 230,000 people at risk of Ebola. This will include: the provision of medical supplies, essential public health support and the training of health workers in the West African nation.
Caritas Australia is part of Caritas Internationalis, the second largest humanitarian network in the world, which has a mandate to work with the poorest of the poor.
In Sierra Leone, Caritas will be working with our Caritas sister agency Catholic Relief Services – Caritas and World Vision are also working together to rapidly scale-up community-based Ebola prevention activities in high-risk districts.
The Caritas network is also actively engaged in responding to Ebola in other countries in West Africa including; Guinea and Liberia, the global appeal for the region is an estimated $3.4 million. This Ebola outbreak is the largest ever known, causing over 3,400 deaths to date. The outbreak has also devastated fragile healthcare systems and damaged the economies of the nations affected, some still recovering from war and conflict.
Caritas Australia’s, Manager of Humanitarian Emergencies, Melville Fernandez, said the current Ebola outbreak is unprecedented in scale and geographical reach.
“The situation is grave and the spread of Ebola transmission continues to double every three to four weeks. Some parts of Sierra Leone are now becoming hot spots. So there’s an urgent need to scale up community awareness in the country to change behavior, stop the transmission of the disease and strengthen the health system,” Mr Fernandez said.
“The latest HPA funds will boost efforts to fight Ebola across remote villages, slums and towns in Sierra Leone.
“It’s clear that many families and communities will suffer long-lasting trauma after the disease is gone, including poverty and social exclusion and we’ll also need to help families and communities recover.”
Caritas Internationalis Special Advisor on HIV and AIDS and Health, Monsignor Robert Vitillo, who was recently in Australia for the UN AIDS and Catholic pre-conference in Melbourne, has just been in Liberia responding to the crisis. He said the need for international help was great.
“Many hospitals and clinics are closed in Liberia, so it is very difficult to get medical treatment for other diseases. Some people die in the streets looking for medical treatment for infection or for a whole host of other diseases,” Monsignor Vitillo said.
“The Catholic Hospital of Saint Joseph in Monrovia, was considered the best health facility in the country, but was closed after the director and eight other staff members died of Ebola. The Brothers of St. John of God and the Catholic Archdiocese of Monrovia are now working with the government authorities to re-open this much-need facility.”
For more information contact: Media Advisor, Nicole Clements on 0408 869 833 or nicolec@caritas.org.au
Caritas is a partner of the Humanitarian Partnership Agreement between the Australian Government and six of Australia’s leading international NGOs, together they are responding rapidly to global disasters and to build resilience to future crises.