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The Guernsey Overseas Aid Commission has agreed to make a donation of £40,000 to the Save the Children Fund West African Ebola Appeal.
The decision to support the Save the Children Fund appeal from the States of Guernsey annual budget of £200,000 for Disaster Emergency Relief reflects a long standing relationship between the commission and this charity. The commission is confident that Save the Children Fund has the expertise and resources to respond to the needs of the people of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
The commission’s donation of £40,000 will be used to purchase emergency medical supplies, including specialist beds, mosquito nets, rain boots, and sanitation materials such as gloves, mops and buckets. These items will help ensure that the risk of contracting the virus for health care staff treating Ebola victims is reduced as far as is possible.
The commissioners are mindful that the Ebola outbreak has hit an already vulnerable region of the world especially hard. The highly infectious nature of the illness means that many families grieving the loss of loved ones are unable to fulfil their customary last rites and offer a dignified burial. Further, all too often it is wives and mothers, as primary caretakers, who are at highest risk of becoming infected, yet they continue to care for their family members because they cannot imagine how not to care for them until the very end.
In a recent blog, a Save the Children Fund volunteer working in Liberia as part of the charity’s team responding to the outbreak wrote: “For a country where nearly every family lost someone during a long civil war in the not- so-distant past, this outbreak hits deeply on so many levels. Communities still remember what loss of human lives mean, and the long-lasting impact it has on their social fabric. A public health emergency of this nature threatens a breakdown in everyday life -- schools, health clinics and hospitals close down, community gatherings come to a halt, neighbours grapple with what to do with children who have lost their parents to Ebola. All around there is a restlessness stirred by uncertainty over how long this way of life will continue.”
Mr Tim Peet, the commission’s deputy Chairman, said: "In agreeing to make a donation of £40,000 to the Save the Children Fund appeal, the commissioners were very conscious of the impact this disease is having on the people of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. These countries have experience conflict and unrest in recent years and the commission has supported many projects aimed at helping this rebuilding work. It is vital that the Ebola outbreak is brought under control as soon as possible so that this vital development work can carry on.
"We have all seen the distressing pictures on our televisions, but, we can only start to imagine the impact that the fear of contracting the disease, the loss of loved ones to the disease and the disruption to daily lives is having on the people of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea is having of these communities. I am sure Islanders will support the commission’s decision to make this donation to assist Save the Children Fund in its work to help the people of Africa in bringing the outbreak of this terrible disease under control.”
