Caritas Response of
Caritas Internationalis
and other FBOs
to the Ebola Epidemic in
coastal West Africa
At Social Forum of
United Nations Human
Rights Council
By Mons. Robert J. Vitillo
15 February , 2015 - Geneva
Caritas According to WHO, the situation as of 8 February 2015 was the following: More than 22,000 cases of Ebola Virus Disease, in the three countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone Cases/deaths : Guinea: 3,044/ 1955 Liberia: 8,881/ 3826 Sierra Leone: 10,934/ 3,341
Health centers and clinics were gravely affected!
Caritas Contributions of Caritas and other Catholic
Organizations at national, diocesan and local levels
While governments and inter-governmental organizations struggled to mount a coordinated response, Caritas and other religious organizations responded immediately and effectively to this crisis, at local, national, regional, and local levels by:
Training by local staff and international volunteers at Catholic health clinic in rural Dolotown
Securing, from international Church-related donors, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), medications,
and funds for risk incentive pay for staff
Advocating for greater support from national and local governments
and from the international community
Community awareness and outreach is key
A “survivor”, Dr Fanta, speaking on Radio Veritas about her experience
Recovered patients can be important assets in Community-based training Programs and in confronting Stigma and Discrimination
Providing material and pastoral assistance to those unable to provide
for their daily sustenance (in particular, those in 21-day
quarantine)
Accompanying families and neighbours as they mourned those who died, and facilitating the re-integration of those who have recovered from the disease
Assisting WHO to revise what formerly was called its “Dead Body Management Policy” into its “Guidelines for Safe and Dignified
Burials” and and Implementing them in the field
Caritas
Pope Francis articulates this very well when he when he speaks of: … the need for integral care, that considers the person in his entirety, and that unites medical care – ‘technical care’ [with] a human, psychological and social support, because the physician must care for all: the human body, with its psychological, social and spiritual dimension; as well as the spiritual accompaniment and support for the family members of the sick person … Brotherly sharing with the sick opens us to the true beauty of human life, including its fragility, helping us to recognize the dignity and the value of every human being, in whatever condition he or she may find himself, from conception to death. Pope Francis, Address to a Congress of Oncological Surgeons, 11 April 2014, http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-to-physicians-never-lose-sight-of-the-spiritu
“Comparative Advantage” of Catias and Other FBOs
in assuring the right to health and medicines in response to Ebola
