The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Ebola plea starts amazing campaign
Déjà vu! Remember the Ebola virus, a serious viral infection which originated in subSaharan Africa? At the time, the WHO declared Ebola to be one of the world’s most virulent diseases, with a fatality rate of up to 90%, damaging the body’s immune system and organs.
In 2014, Ebola hit the UK headlines. In desperation, Monrovia Rotarians appealed to the world for help. Brian Jonson said: “We must do something”, which started an unprecedented chain of events.
Marlow Rotary Club responded to that cry for help and started an appeal for funds. Amazingly, this became a coordinated appeal for the whole of Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland, raising well over £100,000.
The immediate need was for rubber gloves, mattresses, hand-wash buckets with chlorine and food for quarantined people. When the big NGOs stepped in, the Rotary club turned its attention to education. Hundreds of front-line medical staff had died during the epidemic. The club started the Ebola Legacy Campaign, applying for a Rotary Global Grant of nearly $100,000 to educate medical students. Once graduated, the newlyqualified nurses and technicians were to remain in Liberia to help rebuild. Monrovia Rotarians selected the most suitable students and Rotary agreed to support them during their training. In 2016, the first students were enrolled, eventually 35 students will graduate.
The son of one of the Monrovia Rotarians died from a respiratory condition (not Ebola). Had oxygen been available, he may have survived. This spurred the club to start an even more ambitious project of building a medical oxygen plant. Hospitals had been forced to use industrial oxygen, sometimes with disastrous consequences. A Rotary Global Grant worth nearly $200,000 was applied for. The project was not without issues. The chosen supplier of the plant went bankrupt, and the hospital chosen to host it proved unsuitable. Feasibility studies were carried out on four suppliers and four hospitals. The perfect fit was found.
Five years later Brian was in Liberia witnessing the culmination of an incredible campaign, with the first 19 students graduating and the first major medical oxygen plant opening in Monrovia. Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world. They have no running water. Water is brought in by lorries, pumped into major buildings or sold on the street in plastic bags. The airport was a long way from the city. Like so much of Africa, roads were bad, not helped by a six-month-long rainy season, some potholes the size of small lakes!
Monrovia Rotary made Brian’s visit unforgettable. He lunched with the past president, attended the Rotary club and met the graduate students. He also met the British Ambassador, discussing training more students and the need for funding. Finally, he attended the official opening of the new oxygen plant where the British Ambassador cut the ribbon. In the first few months of operation, the plant supplied just one hospital, but now it is planned to offer 100 cylinders a month to other hospitals.
Like all Rotarians, Brian is proud to be associated with an organisation that can, and will continue to do, so much good in the world.