Aliyya Swaby Photo
Almost a month after its own Ebola scare, New Haven kicked off a campaign aiming to raise $100,000 by the end of January for sister city Freetown’s health crisis.
“Three weeks ago, we had a small taste of the trepidation surrounding Ebola … The uncertainty we faced for 24 hours here is what Freetown residents have been experiencing all day, every day for months,” Mayor Harp said at a conference in City Hall Thursday.
The moneys will pay for the cost of four cargo vans-turned-ambulances and medical supplies to help bring Ebola victims from rural villages to crisis centers and provide them with treatment. Freetown became New Haven’s sixth Sister City in 1997, after a grassroots push led by the New Haven-based Amistad Committee.
Sierra Leone ambassador Ibrahim S. Conteh said the devastatingly rapid spread of the disease has sidetracked the country’s rapid economic growth since its civil war ended in 2002, with many development projects on hold following the Ebola outbreak.
“Ebola is taking a stranglehold on the socioeconomic growth of our country,” he said. Among the challenges Sierra Leone faces is increasing its medical staff for patients affected with the disease and ensuring “infected corpses are collected promptly to prevent spreading the disease.”
The spread of the disease has limited certain important cultural practices, including “communal burying ceremonies,” Conteh said.
Amistad Committee President Al Marder commended the Mayor for leading the “first effort in the United States of a city adopting its responsibility to others” in respect to the Ebola crisis. He said his own son returned safely in August after a stint with the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone.
Marder pledged $1,000 for the campaign on behalf of Amistad.
To donate, mail a check to:
Citizens to Drive Out Ebola
United Way of Greater New Haven
370 James Street, Suite 403
New Haven, CT 06513
To give a donation online, visit this website.