Adventist Church’s Ebola response highlights coordinated effort
February 20, 2015 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Ansel Oliver/ANN
“Kids today call people like us Ebola Bomba. It means you are a victorious person who fights Ebola. We will defeat it,” says Prince U. Goma, a pharmacist at Waterloo Adventist Hospital in Sierra Leone. Image by W. Romeril/WHO via Facebook
The Seventh-day Adventist Church’s coordinated response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa includes eradication projects in the affected countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone, as well as support for several hospitals and more than two-dozen schools, most of which still remain closed.
Support has come from throughout the denomination’s international network, including its world headquarters, Health Ministries department, Loma Linda University, Adventist Health International, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, Hope for Humanity, as well as schools, hospitals, churches and individual donors.
In December, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) established a position to coordinate response efforts among Adventist entities worldwide.
“ADRA and other Adventist entities haven’t worked together in quite this way before, but there hasn’t been a crisis like the Ebola crisis before,” said Elizabeth Foulkes, ADRA’s Ebola Response Coordinator. “Obviously everyone together can do more than everyone alone.”
“The Adventist Church in particular, as a global church with congregations and institutions around the world, has somewhat of an advantage over other [non-governmental organizations] in that almost anywhere you go, there are already people on the ground, be they from the churches, divisions, unions, conferences, missions, schools, hospitals or ADRA,” Foulkes said.
“Contributions are making a difference on the ground,” she added.
This week representatives from ADRA International, Adventist Health International, and the Loma Linda University International Behavioral Health Trauma Team met in Loma Linda, California, United States, to discuss how they can best work together in responding to the Ebola crisis and future emergencies.
Clinical response provides care to Ebola patients and others
In Sierra Leone, ADRA is managing decontamination teams to spray homes and replace infected mattresses and bedding in neighborhoods on the outskirts of Freetown, the nation’s capital.
Waterloo Adventist Hospital in Sierra Leone continues to operate as an Ebola Treatment Center supported by the World Health Organization and the Cuban Medical Brigade, according to a recent ADRA Ebola Situation Report.
Waterloo is in need of major plumbing repairs due to the effects of chlorine used to sanitize the facility. The hospital is also in need of clothing for patients, as Ebola patients must surrender their clothing to be burned. The hospital has had to discharge some Ebola survivors in clinical scrubs.
An ADRA network proposal is being drafted to address needs at Waterloo.
In Liberia, Cooper Adventist Hospital closed in quarantine for a month last year after two staff members contracted Ebola. It has since re-opened and is one of the few operational hospitals in the region to serve as a non-Ebola treatment center, Gaede said.
Several volunteer U.S.-based physicians have served several-month stints working at Cooper.
ADRA Canada and ADRA UK are supporting the Masanga Hospital in Sierra Leone’s Tonkolili district. The hospital is using virtual reality gaming technology to teach safety protocols for dealing with Ebola, such as wearing protective equipment and burial procedures.
Nearly 23,253 people have been infected and nearly 9,380 people have died from Ebola since the outbreak last March, according to a February 18 update from the World Health Organization (WHO).
A WHO representative last week emphasized that containment efforts are crucial over the next month in order to stay ahead of the rainy season.
“If we can’t substantially reduce the geographic extent of this outbreak within the next two months, before the rainy season begins in late March or April, we will be in a particularly difficult situation,” Bruce Aylward, the WHO’s special representative for Ebola Response, wrote on a UN blog last week.
Ebola is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids and tissue of an infected person. Those most at risk are healthcare staff and family members caring for someone infected with the virus, according to the WHO. Case fatalities range from 25 percent to 90 percent depending on the amount of treatment available.
Adventist health leaders urged members not to forget the lingering epidemic that still wreaks havoc in West Africa despite declining news coverage.
“Even though it is far away, continued interest in the Ebola epidemic leads to people joining together to help those in need,” said Donn Gaede, secretary of Adventist Health International, which oversees hospitals in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
ADRA is also implementing food security programs and other initiatives that will aid others who are indirectly affected by Ebola. ADRA is partnering with the World Food Programme to distribute food in several counties in Liberia.
Adventist schools prepare to open
Many schools in Liberia resumed operations Monday after a seven-month closure due to the Ebola virus, but most Adventist schools remained closed because they lack required washing stations and chlorine.
Of the Adventist Church’s 24 schools in Liberia, only one opened Monday, said Theresa Dweh Sheriff, Education director of the Adventist Church’s South-West Liberia Conference, based in Monrovia.
Sheriff said schools could re-open if they had proper sanitation buckets and chlorine for students to wash their hands before heading in and out of classrooms. Staff must also be trained on preventive measures.
Schools are reopening on a rolling basis as supplies are delivered, training is completed, and students are registered, Foulkes said.
ADRA has secured funding from Germany’s relief coalition Aktion Deutschland Hilft to provide and distribute 115 non-contact thermometers and 115 handwashing stations to Adventist schools, the ADRA Situation Report stated. The project also includes back-to-school kits—such as backpacks and notebooks—for 500 students.
The 24 Adventist schools are attended by more than 7,600 students at full enrollment, she said.
Sheriff said up to 90 percent of students in many of the Church’s schools are not Adventist.
Adventist schools will also soon receive a food shipment from the NGO Stop Hunger Now, which will provide students school meals for approximately two months.
Groups around the world support
Many schools and churches around the world have held benefit concerts and other fundraisers to combat Ebola. Next month, the lifestyle club at an Adventist church in Mysen, Norway, will host a sponsored fun run. Up to 100 people are expected to participate.
“[The club] came up with the idea to support ADRA and requested a health project. We in ADRA immediately thought about ADRA’s work to prevent Ebola and the upcoming network project in Sierra Leone,” said Britt Celine, a program officer for ADRA Norway.