Kudzai Makopa
Kudzi's 5 & 10k Runs for MSF and Ebola
Fundraising for Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
Story
UPDATE 15/10/14:
I am in a whatsapp group with all of my Sierra Leonean counterparts from my volunteer trip to their country. Yesterday, this message was posted by Dora, who is from Makeni, Sierra Leone:
Friends, these days you need much more than courage to carry on here. You wake up in the morning, turn your TV on, the news is about ebola deaths, images of body bags, mass burial and scary projections nothing to smile about. You turn the radio on, the news is about health workers and burial teams on strike, misuse of ebola funds, corruption and some politicians that are mocking their people even during the outbreak. Food prices continue to go up, more businesses are folding, and our way of life totally affected. You don't know who to trust; your son or your wife ? In public transport, or your girlfriend might even be your free ticket to the disease. You saw a friend lose his whole family to the disease, your next door neighbours are in quarantine. And you ask yourself, who is next? Schools are closed; no leisure activities and the figures for new cases continue to go up. You count yourself very lucky to return home safe everyday without any hitch. Even as we put up brave face but the truth is that we are living in constant fear.
This is Sierra Leone for u today!
Seeing this message makes you remember how this outbreak is affecting those at the heart of it. Forget border checks, this is where we need to focus our efforts.
Please donate whatever you can so that MSF can continue fighting this on the front line.
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As many of you are aware, I recently spent two months in Sierra Leone volunteering with VSO. In the first week of my arrival in May, the first confirmed case of Ebola in the country was announced. Unfortunately, I left the country after two months due to Ebola spreading to the district where I was living.
Whilst I was there much of my work was focussed on the dissemination of information about the signs and symptoms of Ebola, hoping to help stem the spread of the disease. Unfortunately, there is now 1100 confirmed cases of Ebola in Sierra Leone and nearly 4000 in West Africa as a whole. The death toll stands at around 2000 and shows little sign of slowing.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) was an ever present sight in Sierra Leone and with nearly 2000 staff in West Africa, MSF is doing incredible amounts to help with control and treat what is the largest Ebola epidemic ever.
If you can donate, any amount of money will go to helping those in Sierra Leone, West Africa and all those MSF treat around the world.