 There's been a lot of questions asked about the man here in Dallas that has Ebola and the apartment that he lived in and whether that apartment where he was safe for so long, if that was still contagious. How many days later is it still contagious? That story intrigued me and I have to mention it now. It intrigued me when I saw it on TV that for one family, one person's infection, you had the fire force, you had the big cleaning agent, even the cars were all covered. Then I said, I wonder how people feel if they were in Sierra Leone. When even we can count the number of doctors we have, we don't have up to 200 doctors in a country like Sierra Leone. We don't have up to 500 midwives or nurses. We don't even have, let's say 40% or 60% of free town, we don't have pipeable water. Yes. We don't have, if our government doesn't have enough personal protective care, they don't have enough of these barrier teams to go around. I wonder how if Americans went to Sierra Leone and they were told the treatment center where they are treating these patients. With nothing. It was amazing when I saw that story. For one person, Pompeo resources for the whole country, for Liberia, for let's say the four countries that are being involved, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria. That's just something to think about. But yet I think that we are told that the quarantine must last for 21 days. The house should be fumigated and closed after 21 days before it can be feel safe. Our people stay in their homes with nobody knowing whether they can eat and they say they are quarantined. They don't have enough water, they don't have enough food. In a family with maybe like 10 in one household. It's amazing, isn't it? It is amazing. Yes. Does the virus have outside of the body? In the contamination of a home, moisture on the toilets, on the handles of the sinks and things like that, doorknob, how long would it take for that virus to disintegrate or to die? I think it lives longer in moisture. And the longer it stays in moisture, it can last for days. But as long as it's dry, and if you use like the chemicals, the chlorine, it kills the virus. So the lady that was in that, that's affected, she did say she was using Clorax to clean the surfaces in her house. For us, we just quarantine people for 21 days and assume that it's always well after. And we have not had any reports yet that people after the quarantine have had episodes or have been infected. They actually would test everyone who is quarantined for the virus. Yes, you can be reinfected. If you expose yourself again, surely you'll be reinfected. But you will have more antibodies then. Because your body, because your body develops antibodies, makes the person to be well to survive the infection. You see, I am comparing this with HIV. If we look back at HIV, we have the same methods, most of transmission, not so. We have the same messages we are giving for HIV. The only difference with HIV is the sweat. Because nobody had told us that sweat carries HIV virus. But in this case, sweat carries Ebola virus. And that means you can contract it through the pores of your skin if you can go through sweat. Because sweat comes through from the pores of your skin. You see, that's the only difference. But it is hemorrhagic, just like HIV is transmitted through body fluids. And if you are careless about vomit or feces or semen and that, you will get it. It's the same thing with Ebola. You see, that is the barrier. They go and pick the bodies up. And with no family members, take the bodies away. To an unknown grave. So when we did the training, the bishops and the leaders, the religious leaders, they said we have to make a representation to governments. To allow the religious leaders to at least accompany the barrier team to where their members are laid. So that they can say a prayer. They do not have to touch the, because this is bad twice. The first would spray the body, then they bag it once, then spray, then they bag it a second time before it's taken. So it's really like fumigated before the person is taken to the grave. But it's like a common grave. Those who've been on the internet and have seen it, you may have seen the grave. I was very upset when I saw that grave, because it's like common grave. You see, that too has its own implications. Because getting so many corpses in one area, and we have our weather system, the rains, the rainy season, and the major means of survival is farming. I'm just thinking of tomorrow, what is going to be the other implications of this. So we had made that appeal that the leader, the religious leader, to whichever denomination that person belong, be allowed and ground and prepared to follow so that at least they can identify where the person is laid. That started to be done. Understanding in Liberia, they are cremating each and every one of those bodies. Yes, which is sensible. So you do not have that tomorrow, yes sir. Are there cultural customs that would discourage the cremation? Yes, yes. This is why Sierra Leone is so buried. But the ideal for Ebola patient corpses is to be burned. Because I read somewhere, somebody gave me the information that when they had Ebola epidemic in Uganda, in one of the villages they had to burn, even the houses. And that was how they were able to get rid of the virus from that community. But our cultural beliefs sometimes plays a part in the way we live and the way we address responses. These are victims. Those are the recent victims of Ebola. The gentleman is a medical doctor, also a medical doctor I understand from Uganda was working with UN. And this is an RN, a registered professional nurse. She passed. She even took this picture as you can see in the world. And she too died to Ebola. To date, I'm sure lost over 150 health workers in Sierra Leone to Ebola. We've had lost four doctors in a country where you don't have up to 100 doctors. So that's a big challenge. Now what are the effects of Ebola on us? Health wise, I don't have to explain that. It's devastating. People are not healthy. People are not having enough food. They're just barely surviving. There's not enough water supply. There's not enough food. Most people are depending on those who have families that taste like America. Those of you who have family who has relieving hands, I'm sure you are getting calls. And people are telling you what they need. When you quarantine a family and you just go around and give them a bowl of soup. And tell that family of five to wash their hands 15 times a day. And they cannot even afford chlorine to put in their water. So we just say wash your hands any time. You use the bathroom. Develop, increase the culture of washing hands. Increase the culture of taking care of your personal hygiene. The children are talking about that. Unfortunately, there's no economies going on. Almost all the companies, their staff have left. And left us. Except those countries that have now sent health workers to help us with the epidemic. So economy is at a standstill. Even the local markets where people take their vegetables. The community people find they bring their vegetables, their bananas, their pepper which they sell to survive has been stopped since June. People are not even visiting themselves. Social impact. We can't, we don't allow guests to come to us anymore in our houses because we are not sure what they have. So those who have guests, their guests are closed. Yes. Somebody will call and say, I want to visit you. No, don't visit me yet. Then when the government shut down the whole country, made it even worse. And they don't have enough resources to go around to give every family food that had been shut down. You see, people had to go out, they go to the market, they sell before they buy food for that day. That stopped. Even when the people died, they had corpses, they will call the hotline 117 and it will take like two days before they come to clear the corpse from the home. Socially, we are very antisocial of late. Yes, we are visiting people. Somebody will just get up, they don't have to call you. You see, they have arrived. And you are welcome. But no, not anymore. Even in vehicles, taxes, the government says, taxes must take only three people at any one time. And the fear cost is so high. How can a business person use, instead of taking five, says three. For one trip, one in front of the car, two on either side of the window, one person on either side of the window. For buses, you can only take six. So all that has grounded the whole economy. So when government says we are shutting down, we have already shut down before government shuts us down. I even got a call this morning. It's like I'm here but I'm working. I have to give supervision. I have to give ideas. I have to give input. This is why the church took the owners now to go from community to community. So anywhere where they have shut down the districts, the church sends teams to those districts to identify the homes that have been quarantined, the communities that have been quarantined to provide them with basic food, basic soap, you know, give them those buckets and teach them where they cannot give enough, they will tell them, okay, if you have a bowl, you can put a bowl here, put a cup and be using that cup to wash your hands. Because we go very basic. We go very basic in our thoughts. So the education forgets it. Schools have been closed since June. Schools and colleges in all these countries have been closed since June. And this is, we're almost, we're in October. So there's no education. There's no university education. The children are at home and imagine young people at home are not occupied. Forget about television. We don't have that. We don't even have electricity. Those who are fortunate to have generators, fear is about six or seven dollars a gallon. How much? When I'm home, I use a gallon a day and it's only for four hours. That's electricity I am. That's what I can provide. So sometimes when people email me and I don't respond like two days, we wonder where Beatriz is. They don't even know I don't have electricity for that day. Sometimes the office, we don't have electricity. So those are some of the issues we're dealing with in Sierra Leone. We look to you. We are looking forward to you, the church. We want the pastors to speak about Ebola. We want every church to speak about Ebola in Sierra Leone and West Africa. That is the only way. We hope and we are praying. We continue to pray. In all our hospitals, they pray every morning before work starts for this epidemic to be controlled. Because it has actually dealt with the very fabric of not only the individual but our social life, every aspect of life Ebola has touched. So we are looking to this Almighty God. We know He made us. So we just believe that one day God will help us to be able to control these menace in our communities. Please help us to stop Ebola. Whatever resources you have, send it to UNCO, United Methodist Committee on Relief, of the General Board of Global Ministries. It will be received. If you want to designate it to any country, it will be used for that country. If you want me to know, if you go on the website, my email is there. If you want any information about me, you ask the general, even UNCO, because I work directly with Ted Warner, they'll be able to give you my information. But I thank all of you. On behalf of the Sierra Leone Conference, United Methodist Church, I thank all of you for all your donations you have been making, for all the input you have made on this program, especially the Imagine No Malaria. Can you imagine, if we didn't have Ebola, can you imagine if an Ebola free Sierra Leone, education would work, children would go to school. They would grow up to hear that there was Ebola and not to see Ebola. Can you imagine, if there was no Ebola, how much economic development would have? We were just being proud to say, oh, we are getting rid of malaria. And then Ebola shows up. So thank you very much for listening. I'll take a seat. Yes. In fact, there are other animals, and the animals did not suffer pain. And did you say animals don't have any antibodies? No, they don't. They don't suffer the disease. So they cannot develop antibodies. Do they die from it? Well, yes. The unfortunate thing, we mentioned about animals, because that's one method of transmission, of eating. So one of the messages that avoid eating any animal, we have you call it bush meat. Yes. Do they have the research that's going to, or what they're doing as far as trying to find the antibody? Yes, here in the western world, in the U.S., in England, in Canada, Italy, they have come up with vaccines which they are trying. They are in trial stages. We haven't heard what the outcome has been. Yes. The vaccine. There's more Ebola in Liberia than Sierra Leone. And so how do you account for that? Well, one, the Ebola is escalated more in Liberia than Sierra Leone currently. Because of some mistakes that have been made. I mean, we have the education, but I don't think they have reinforced the education of not touching, doing hand washing and resources. Those are some of the areas, the availability of resources. We, as soon as it was declared Ebola in Sierra Leone, the first thing our bishop did was to write to all our partners, please don't visit us until the epidemic is under control. I had teams planned to visit me for the health program and I just wrote to the lady, please don't come. I will come. That's how I got myself in the U.S. I would have been back since September. But then it's so escalated, there was no Ebola in Freetown in July. And now Ebola is everywhere. You see, so in Liberia the stories we heard were devastating. There were still gatherings going on and the resources are meagre. You see, I don't know whether they reinforce this no touch or no hugging because they have their own issues and as much as we are so similar in culture, even food each country has their own separate issues. And I think those are some of the things that is... One thing he helped is our bishop you see. He took it serious and got everybody together all the faith-based organizations. We are in education now. We called all of them and said look, when we had the civil war, it was the faith-based organizations that came together and said we cannot continue war. So they said we cannot see Ebola. We cannot allow Ebola to finish our people. So that's how it developed the religious leaders task force for Ebola. And every Muslim every free in Bagh whenever they reach their kutubas the salmon they will mention about Ebola. They will mention something on the prevention we have made big banners and put it in big terms in all the districts. So that even the school children will read what the prevention messages are and take it home. So now this... somebody told me this morning that the like 120 people died yes, this is because the education is reaching the majority of the people because at first people were in denial and they were keeping their sick people home instead of taking them to the treatment centers to the hospitals but now they know that there is treatment there is some care available so people are now coming forward and taking their people and losing people still but it's better than when they were kept home and they were infected the whole lot of the others. But now they need more money but now we have to have isolation centers in our hospitals we just have holding centers like one room where any suspect can be put there till the person is taken to the nearest treatment center we need like vehicle vehicles from those hospitals so that at least when you have a suspect, you don't sit and wait for government you just take that person straight to the nearest treatment center which we shot in the time you will keep the person in the hospital I was here one morning and they called me sister we have a gentleman who has worked to kiss the hospital I said he's been exposed to Ebola he thinks he's been infected so I said to him where is he right now so they said he's at the gate I said keep him at the gate please don't allow him to call into the hospital then we sent one of the nurses the midwives they took the infrared thermometer which you can use without touching the person they did his temperature they called 117 hotline and he told you that man they took his blood and we made a referral that's the kind of thing we have been doing because if he had gone into that hospital and if he had proved to be positive serious this is a hospital where you can have over 100 people coming in there per day to be seen so those are the issues we need a lot of support because there's hunger now because Ebola is not killing us but the hunger is killing us we need vehicles to be able to transfer we need basic medications and even there because those I could make only use once so you need more almost all the time yes sir I'm overwhelmed and I honestly I don't know how to help specifically I mean definitely I'm going to bring this up in church but what specifics can I do to help? if you have you can raise funds it's better you raise funds and send it to Unko instead of getting physical materials because if you send these materials to Unko the shipment because they too play for shipment but if you send funds they can collect what we need and they get it in one shipment and get us those personal protective gears were shipped by air yes they were shipped by air because if it had gone by sea it would take three months so actually donating and if you want you can be specific which country yeah they've got a special fund for Miss Africa I'm going to pick up this flyer the fund number is on the back Hi my name is David Graham I'm originally from Sierra Leone also I live here in the Metroplex I've been here since 1980 I really feel just from listening to how this is going to be a multi approach multi in the sense not everybody who is dying having vomiting is dying from people it's possible people are dying because they're not getting treatment for malaria and typhoid so maybe we really need to have a testing that's what probably is going to be the most efficient way to separate the three diseases the testing aspect once we're able to separate those who are not involved then we'll also need to be able to provide them to help them in typhoid and malaria at least because those people are going to suffocate them to new diseases so the multi-task approach just by listening to how it's nothing like I've read have any insight I live here but the fact that someone is complaining of having Ebola type symptoms which are not Ebola they probably are going to be ignored and then they die we are to reinforce what is said we have had incidents where people have been ignored and they'll go to hospital for even if the person had appendicitis appendicitis and there are no doctors when that person died so we are having deaths for other disease conditions so one of the things I'm glad you mentioned this that we have been asking for is like testing kits testing kits for Ebola testing kits for even malaria so that you can easily test this person you know now they have been tested for HIV we have those that we test people within 20 minutes, half an hour you can know your status so if that comes up you can get those kind of test kits in our hospitals or everywhere so that people can walk in and test because I think this Ebola we are going to end up testing everybody to know their startups for us to be able to control it because people don't know in fact Ebola is even better but HIV you can go with it 3, 4, 5, 6 months there are people who have never tested themselves but they are HIV positive, they are alive but with Ebola it doesn't take you up to 21 days so the sooner you can get yourself tested then you have the rest of men then you start doing things to prevent yourself really infecting yourself or infecting any other person I think we are going to come to that to be able to really actually control so that if we have test kits or means of testing in each of our hospitals and our health centers and have people trained so as soon as you walk in somebody will come to you dressed up properly and give you the education, don't be afraid of me because I am wearing this, I just want to help you let me just do your blow then within 20 minutes you come back and say, oh you are okay but then give you that post test education like we did for HIV, I think that will be a big plus we did such an effective job as the non-advented church as you have said to help with the Magical Malaria campaign and we were on the floor point of that in the North Texas conference and how we disseminated that information to our individual churches to help get this information out it was so helpful and I see if we took and built upon what we have done with that and had like a a poster that gave bullet points of what the problems are and then gave an effective way for a person in the congregation and just like a net cost ten dollars, it saves lives some of the congregation gets that if you have a poster or something like we need prevention so what we need for prevention here is a bucket rather than filling it up with supplies imagine here's what it cost to have a provided bucket with chlorine for this village that cost X amount of dollars say we need to isolate the sick and say if we bought a testing kit this is what it would cost for a testing kit that's what I can do if you said I want to these people are now starving that's a bullet point to help people not starve what does corn meal and protein powder cost to help a family that's isolated in their home survive now I've given my congregation tools and dollar points to see how they can give and say we're going to give this through UMCORP yes we can work with UMCORP gave us this just for for materials let me just emphasize in church as a whole global you just don't know how much power we have over these governments I really feel if not Texas for example we'll get the information to New York that we must pressure the government of Syria we'll have to insist on that trust me UMC government is very powerful in Syria we have to take that forcefulness to action and say why don't we have a month designated as a testing month the whole month of this month you've got to do it Syria the government you have to do it we'll have the manpower we'll have to train the manpower and let's test everybody in December for example and we will start to eliminate and decrease the people who are not affected and hopefully there will be a follow up but the UMC church again I insist can't be involved in politics one way or another issue but the government is not going to budge but trust me when it comes to the United States they'll listen our leaders take that mind it to the government of Syria we believe this will be one approach or whatever will come up with a strategy we've got to approach the government directly just don't leave it to bishops and the masses say yes testing kits I'm sorry I don't have that information but maybe you can get it from like what does it consist of the test kits we have those preventive kits we have the test kits are I mean blood tests they have chemicals and I think I really don't know and in us I know there are chemicals they use in the laboratories yes to test the blood but now I understand there are instant test kits like what you use to test urine those kinds of things which you can put blood on like what you do for HIV you take a drop of blood a small chemical strip something like that I haven't seen it myself since I've been here I've got that information and the Chinese have opened a huge treatment center and I understand they are testing people for less than an hour and they're getting results so I cannot even say that it's true or it's not I'm a nurse I believe in seeing I'm observing myself to be able to confirm but it is happening yes so I'm sure if you went on the website when I came I was in Indiana having meetings with for Kisi Hospital and one of the ladies was on the internet and she said oh I think they can have instant test kits for Ebola so where is it but we got distracted so those of you who are who know technology and can solve I'm sure you'll be able to provide those information for us for the costing honestly I cannot say if the basic items like food like rice we know 50 kilograms of rice is 50 dollars equivalent now it used to be 20 but now it's 50 because it's 200,000 yes we know all the basic condiments everything has come up because of the scarcity you see so for now we cannot I cannot give you costs but there are conferences who would normally send containers of milk some rice North Carolina did that recently they worked with stop hunger project Indiana and they have sent a container from their home but sometimes it's a challenge to even clear those containers once they get to sell them this is what we are saying it's much easier for you here if you get the money send it through umko they can release it to us when they release it to us then we can provide them locally because it's a challenge we need to send containers another concern I have is the barrier because thinking about the future we don't want another project so I don't know how we can approach this if people can come together talk to the president do something about it yes this is one issue that is being thought about as I speak the religious leaders are looking at that some of the Muslims would follow their member to where they are buried some people have had the opportunity to dictate to the barrier team that I want this person to be laid here instead of being taken this is why it's important that the person or the family know and the family be allowed to participate and to have a say into what happens to the remains of their loved ones but that discussion is on because I strongly really would think it would be better for us to commit than to continue the barrier can you imagine we are very nearly a thousand people and we will look at the geographical end of the year it's so small yes yes many is not a question it's a question that I have just been asked and thank you very much for that wonderful information I must confess that the pain and the pain so I think there needs to be some bit of specification because you say like you said that some health is needed which generally but and you can how can we try to specify that one of the ways that health can be seen is by finding the instant testing kit but then if I had it clearly the instant testing kit is not yet confirmed if it is there or not I'm not saying I'm confirmed but what I'm saying is what it felt like it sounded to be an appealing way of one of the appealing way of attracting health and since it's not very clear if it is there or not what I'd like to suggest is can we please if we can confirm those people what could try to claim that it is in existence and try to find out if it is there how helpful is it that's why I said I want to be sure if it is there those who want to channel their funds to us that can use so because maybe I don't think that before I can donate I need to know what I'm donating what am I donating for what will my funds which channel will my funds be taken is it the testing kit is it the food is it the medicine is it the medical care workers that will help I think you're very right thank you very much for that input I could not say that's why I said some items those things can be got in country because if you look at now this is a serious situation and the quicker we get things to us the better the better the results will be I have heard that there are instant tests and I have heard that the Chinese are using but we have to confirm there is somebody in my office who is deputizing me and they spoke to her this morning and they give me on daily basis the things that they need and they were saying sister if we can get test kits we can do and they train us we are nurses who can be able to test other than depending on laboratories because the blood tests take at least two days if there is an instant test like HIV you can just do a single treat within 20 minutes the person knows then you move the person on you are quite right this is what even Unko is telling us that as we get the needs we make a list of what we cannot get in country and they can get from out here and sent to us but it can be done in a bulk these PPEs were sent to us by air not by boat because if they are sent by boats they will still be on the high seas by now but now every unit has those PPEs and the nurses are using so you are quite right my sister thank you for that contribution that's what you are talking about my name is Fonze Hamble I am president of sisters of serials and these members of sisters of serials who have been in Unko for 17 years since the war but I have a question mission is ending this list women and children victimized by the war but yesterday somebody was telling us that on interfaith service that all the kids the orphans who have lost parents to this disease are just out all over there is nobody to take care of them how can we reach these kids when this is different from what you just saw no, it's not different it's all part of that discussion I'm glad you brought it up because we deal with mothers pregnant women we deal with lactating mothers we deal with all the fives and I told you about the incident of the grandmother who took the two children to Punjab to do that you can come through you can go through the United Methodist Conference we have the women's coordinator we have a regional nationality who works with the women we have who is the women's coordinator and of course my office I'm dealing with health generally either one of us we can be able to identify because one of the things that we need to do is to identify the locations of these children that have been offered by Ebola we have a program called vulnerable children's program in Kisi Hospital where we are supporting children who lost their parents to HIV you see this can be part of that program so that they can identify people who have lost parents to Ebola United Methodist is what you need to follow I'm sure you know that we are in four districts in Sierra Leone we are in the north, eastern province we are in south, we are in the east and of course the western area so we have and most of our smaller units are in the rural setting you see we only have two hospitals in Frita like Rotifung Hospital the only hospital in the chiefdom of 15 smaller sections you see Rotifung and lots of you from Sierra Leone have heard about Rotifung Rotifung has been resurrected it's been rehabilitated we have a medical doctor stationed at Rotifung and what is going on we have a medical doctor as I speak and they too have even developed a holding center so those hospitals are centers where people can register to say oh I lost so much this person and it can be easily verified because the workers there are people who live in the communities so they will be able to verify those who have actually lost parents to Ebola but through the women's desk or you go through the health desk or you go through the bishop he's very open he's very health minded I don't I'm never allowed to be careless with the bishop here also how soon can they test the people here who have been exposed or can we just wait and see the people here in the U.S. oh they are tested the young man came he went to hospital he went home after 2 days he went back then he got tested you people test just like that yes they've tested all those people who are who are contact buses and they've got facilities for some lands just like that we've got lyricism on twice a day to take temperature we don't have to start to work in the hospital we can test people we can try to say those are some of the disparities we have we just want we just pray that if we can get like a third of those facilities out there maybe we would have got rid of the same non non as a lay person as a non-medical person I'm just shocked that they left that family in that house for two weeks without doing anything I was I was concerned because I come from a Ebola place and to think that in America somebody had been tested positive and the whole three or four days that home was not visited it was not quarantined because once they take that patient the person out of the home and says to automatically that person that home is quarantined people know that they can't but they are told you cannot go out to go out is meant to be a risk but to say that we kept that woman in that home for three or four days she got visitors because the people must have brought food for her she has friends yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes we can go by the issue of tested if you make it a million A you know testing kit you cannot test kit whether people are going to have years testing kit must be followed by support to stay yes but even if you take it there and you don't train people so can you request But when you can talk to them and they can do it within a day or two to put it down the procedure that this which can be thrown out to us. Yes, amen. About the key. Yes. And do so that you can have all the hospitals, all in the village where they can do your centers, not one, not two, not three, more than that, where we can have testing centers. So the process that it can be done in the whole country, we can do as is suggested to be able to do it in a minute, unless we do the test we cannot know who we are treating. Yes. So if you can do that, we think it can help you. Yes, you, yes. Because I mean, this is money for the clinic everyday. Yes. I think we can do one thing, I think it can work. We said testing. Then we said, we needed like vehicles like ambulance also. Ambulances from those hospitals. So that wherever it's an oldie center, that ambulance is there immediately to take the suspect. So whether I made your bed, survival kits, I would say. Food. No matter how many persons saved, the person has to live. So those are the three. Get a list of knowing who is infected. Get a list of not in that person. So the nearest treatment center. We cannot call them to say, we can do a treatment center. The treatment center intends a whole lot of other things. Because when the staff, you have to keep staff specifically for that. And we don't have that minister. And we don't have the resources to do a treatment. But government has provided treatment centers. But we need to move mobility. To move people from. Which are the points to the nearest treatment center. And as we said, testing kits. So that was actually a major thing. We've already gone over by 30 minutes for our final out. And I know that you're very passionate about this topic. And some of you would like to stay longer and ask more questions. And you are free to do that. But those of you that need to leave, I don't want you to feel like you have to stay. It's going. So thank you very much for coming. And please stay if you'd like to ask more questions. Thank you very much.