Church leaders in Ebola-affected Sierra Leone and Liberia are playing a vital role in helping people to stay safe, says Christian relief and development agency Tearfund.
Tearfund partners have found that church leaders are widely trusted and are able to use church services and other gatherings to help people understand how to stop the spread of Ebola.
‘Everybody is afraid,’ says Patricia Conteh, Tearfund’s projects officer in Sierra Leone. ‘The rate of infection increases every day and there is now very minimal interaction. We don't hug, we don't shake hands, we don't have contact.’
‘The church is strategically placed to help because people take what the pastor says and act on it,’ she continued.
‘The church has a big big role in this fight. The church needs to keep being proactive.’
Tearfund’s partner the Evangelical Fellowship of Sierra Leone (EFSL) has used its network of more than 1,000 churches to inform people about prevention measures. With many public gatherings banned, churches are among the few locations where people can learn about Ebola.
Rev Jonathan Titus-Williams, General Secretary of EFSL, said, ‘People are responding positively to the work these pastors are doing, as in most communities in this country people have trust and respect for religious leaders.’
Tearfund calculates that through the church’s work in Sierra Leone 350,000 people have already learnt about Ebola and measures to prevent it. Tearfund has supplied churches with demonstration hygiene kits, comprising hand sanitisers, soap and chlorine, and a further 2,600 kits have been distributed to families. With the Ebola virus proving weak outside the human body, good hygiene can play a crucial role in stopping its spread.
Similar awareness-raising work is being done in neighbouring Liberia by Tearfund’s partner the Association of Evangelicals of Liberia and in Mali by partner Association Protestante de la Santé au Mali (APSM).
/ends
For further information or interview requests call Louise Thomas in Tearfund’s media office on 0208 943 7780 or 07590 775847. For out of hours media enquiries please call 07710 573749
Notes to editors:
Tearfund has produced a prayer powerpoint for use in churches, meetings and small groups.
As at 22 October 2014, 9,936 cases of Ebola had been reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and among those people 4,877 people have died Source: WHO. Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal have all been affected, although Nigeria and Senegal have now been declared Ebola-free. A first case has been reported in Mali today, 24 October 2014.
Healthcare systems are being severely stretched, many doctors and nurses have died and people are refusing to visit health centres for fear of contracting the virus. Deaths from preventable causes such as complications in childbirth and diarrhoea are expected to rise considerably in consequence.
The most severely affected countries, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have very weak health systems, lacking human and infrastructural resources, having only recently emerged from long periods of conflict and instability.
The current outbreak in west Africa, (first cases notified in March 2014), is the largest and most complex Ebola outbreak since the Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976. There have been more cases and deaths in this outbreak than all others combined. It has also spread between countries starting in Guinea then spreading across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia, by air (1 traveller only) to Nigeria, and by land (1 traveller) to Senegal.On 8 August 2014, the WHO Director-General declared this outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
World Health Organisation fact sheet on Ebola is here
Tearfund is a Christian relief and development agency building a global network of churches to help eradicate poverty. Tearfund is a member of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).
