As confusion and extinction looms over
the nation, it is time for Liberians, especially those in the Diasporas to
personalize this fight against Ebola. Instead of soliciting funds or materials
for organizations like Samaritan’s Purse, Global Ministries or other non-profit
institutions, we need to concentrate our effort on helping family, friends, and
community of origin.
The most palpable way to contribute to
this fight is by redirecting resources directly to family members or community
of origin. If you have not sent money to anyone back home before, now is the
time to visit Western Union or MoneyGram and help someone. Every amount counts
during these difficult times. At the moment, even a phone card send to family
members will go a long way in helping the fight against Ebola. There are online
platforms that have made it simple to load minutes on phones back home.
Having extra cash on hand is paramount
in preventing your family from contracting this deadly virus. If we all send
$50.00 to family members, or community leaders, it will help greatly rather
than keep waiting for these big institutions to solve our problems. Ebola is
striving on poverty and our poor healthcare delivery system.
Death from the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD)
is exponentially increasing; posing threat to our existence.
Fellow Liberians,
news coming out of Liberia is disturbing. In order to understand the trend of
mortality associated with Ebola in Liberia, one has to identify the groups most
affected. They are ordinary Liberians who do not have the luxury of private
transportation, extra cash or gated-homes. Their daily survivor depends on
waking up early in the morning to commute to town in crowded vehicles or on
pem-pem (motorcycle) just to find food. While it is true that the denial and
some tradition practices are major impediments in this fight, poverty has
proven to be the incubator.
Having spoken to several friends and
family members around Liberia in the past week, I have come to realize that the
government of Liberia is not only incapable of fighting this disease but it is
also overwhelmed. One source close to the government told me “because physical
cash is not flowing for misappropriation, the government does not have interest
in controlling the disease.” While some of these speculations may seem
farfetched, the inaction of the government has given credence to some of these perception.
Politicians across the country are also
exploiting this tragic situation rather than finding durable solutions that
would end the spread of this deadly disease. As evident, local news outlets
around Liberia are plagued with photos of politicians donating buckets or
chlorine with campaign messages written all over them. It is disheartening that
some of these individuals are more concern about power than the people are
seeking to govern. These actions have demonstrated that all they care about is
power. Unnecessary bureaucracy is part of the problem in Liberia.
Given the proven ineptitude of our
government in fighting this disease, it is expedient that we handle things
ourselves. This is a desperate plea to Diasporas Liberians; please sponsor
someone in Liberia. We all need to treat this Ebola crisis like we did during
the brutal civil war. Whatever is send on one person could trickle down to many
in the community. The more we personalize this fight, the better our chance of
saving lives.