Concern Worldwide today announced a €36m programme to address the spread of Ebola in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The agency is recruiting logisticians, health care professionals and engineers to travel immediately to West Africa.
With immediate effect, the organisation will assume responsibility for managing 14 burial teams and two cemeteries in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. This includes the fleet management of 22 vehicles used to transfer victims of Ebola to burial sites.
In Liberia, Concern will construct and support isolation units at 19 community health centres.
These initiatives are in addition to the extensive public education and response coordination project Concern has been leading since the outbreak of Ebola.
Dominic MacSorley, Concern's CEO, appealed for public support for the organisation’s work, saying "We need to break the Ebola transmission rate by setting up isolation units, safely disposing of bodies and massively increasing public awareness. We have to prevent this disease from completely unravelling the social, economic and cultural fabric of West African society. I can’t overestimate enough the urgency of this and I'm appealing to people in Ireland to help make this critical work possible.”
Details of positions are available on Concern’s website – www.Concern.net. Donations can be made online www.concern.net or phone 1850 410 510.
ENDS
Concern has a number of experienced staff available for interview:
Concern’s International programme director Anne O'Mahony has just returned from a fact-finding mission to Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Fiona McLysaght is Concern’s country director in Sierra Leone.
Reka Sztopa is leading Concern’s Ebola response programme in Liberia.
Contact:
About Concern’s Ebola programme
Concern has been working in Liberia since 1991 and Sierra Leone since 1995. Our normal programmes, focusing on education, training for farmers and providing access to markets, have been redesigned to focus on the Ebola crisis – including, for instance, the provision of school education via radio stations. In addition, the organisation is
Supporting overall co-ordination of the Ebola response programme in Sierra Leone
Providing public education on the risk factors for infection
Establishing hand-washing stations
Supporting health structures including health staff training on Ebola symptoms and prevention and providing personal protective equipment to health facilities Ebola can be controlled if we are able to identify effected people quickly and transfer them to appropriate health facilities.
