"Charities and individual philanthropies have given generously and they can make a big difference," President Obama emphasized yesterday during his announcement of U.S. plans for addressing Ebola.
Indeed, one nonprofit has had a huge impact from the start of this outbreak. Doctors Without Borders established the first treatment centers back in March after officials confirmed that the virus had killed 59 people in Guinea.
The group's president, Dr. Joanne Liu, has been critical of the international response, calling it "too little, too late."
Now, with the outbreak surging in West Africa, nonprofits and philanthropists are ramping up their efforts.
Last week, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $50 million – the largest donation ever made by the organization to a humanitarian emergency. The money will buy medical supplies for health workers as well as fund research for vaccines and better diagnostic tools.
It's an unprecedented move for an organization that has largely focused on long-term initiatives to combat diseases that kill millions each year. But the contribution isn't out of line with the overall mission, says CEO Susan Desmond-Hellmann.
"Our guiding principle is that all lives have equal value," she tells Goats and Soda. "We were struck by the inequity that is so visible, how these individuals in West Africa are not able to access health care."
The decision to make such a large contribution came, Desmond-Hellmann says, when it became clear that "this was more than an outbreak, and a true health crisis." The Gates Foundation had previously donated $2 million to the World Health Organization and UNICEF to support anti-Ebola efforts.
Media coverage has motivated other nonprofits. "The more something is present in the news, the more likely we are to take action," says Dune Ives, co-manager of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. The "crescendo" of news in the past few weeks has pushed Allen to do more, she adds.
The foundation donated more than $15 million within the past week. Nine million dollars went to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to establish emergency centers and $3.6 million to UNICEF to airlift 50,000 protection kits to Liberia. Another $3 million went toward partnering with South African nonprofit airline, Airlink, to fly emergency medical aid into West Africa.
That's on top of $2.9 million donated in August.
It's not only money that's needed.
A team of doctors from Partners In Health, a Boston-based nonprofit committed to providing basic health care to the world's poorest regions, has just arrived in West Africa. Co-founder Paul Farmer and other staff will work with two local organizations to lay the groundwork for a two- to three-year project to deal with Ebola. They're recruiting additional volunteers, including physicians and nurses.
This Saturday, Direct Relief will charter a private jet to send its 11th shipment of supplies to Liberia and Sierra Leone during the outbreak: $11 million worth of protective gear, gloves and medicine, weighing in at 100 tons. The California-based medical aid group has been providing emergency medical supplies for 66 years. This latest shipment will be their largest ever, says CEO Thomas Tighe.
"Someone needed to do it, and we realized that was us," Tighe says. His group already had the materials, it had partners in Africa and, he says, "We know how to do it."
Tighe believes governments must take the lead in a crisis like this. But nonprofits can play a complementary role. "Those big wheels of government – they turn slowly," he says. "Nonprofits are sort of the smaller wheels that turn faster."
In Modesto, Calif., Relief Inc. has been collecting medical supplies since the beginning of the outbreak, filling a 40-foot shipping container that will make its way to Liberia.
Relief Inc. has largely worked to better the lives of women and children in war-torn Liberia. When the outbreak hit, the group began gathering protective gear, disinfectant and other supplies.
Wrangling donations and finding an airline to work with hasn't been easy, says CEO Phebe Dennis-Fortt, who was born and raised in Liberia and still has family there.
Their contribution may not rival the size of Direct Relief's, but every bit counts. Especially for Dennis-Fortt. "We were at war for years," the 53-year-old says. "We were finally starting to see some peace, and people were still coming up with hope."
Then Ebola came "out of the blue" and again, she had to watch her community suffer.
"It's just too much pain, and you want it to go away," she says. "But it doesn't."
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