In This Year Of Ebola, A Montana YMCA Is Its Brother's Keeper
It started with the obvious question: "How can we help?"
That's what Chris Siegler wanted to know when Ebola struck Sierra Leone. And the answer to that question shows that it's not only big international groups that can assist Ebola-ravaged countries.
Siegler has had a long relationship with the West African nation. He was a Peace Corps volunteer there in the late 1960s with his wife, Jeannie. After the 11-year civil war ended in 2002, the Sieglers went to visit. Chris, who's on the board of the YMCA in Missoula, Mont., came across a YMCA in Freetown, the country's capital.
And so a partnership was born.
Chris Siegler with Pa Njai (far right) in Kalangba, Sierra Leone, in 2011. As a Peace Corps volunteer, Siegler met Njai back in 1969.
"There's a tremendous similarity between the Y in Sierra Leone and the Y in Missoula," Siegler says, "in the fact that it's constantly looking for how the organization can serve the community better."
Missoula's Y has been raising money for Sierra Leone's since 2004, sending close to $100,000 to help fund programs for kids and teach job skills. They've also brought staff from Sierra Leone's Y to Missoula to study.
And now the Missoula Y is doing its part to help its sister organization in Sierra Leone.
When Siegler asked how to help, the answer was: "You can help by just giving us some funds for basic supplies, the chlorine buckets, chlorine bleach." That's how the Missoula Y began offering aid. Now it's also paying for "delivering food to families that are quarantined in their home for the 21 days while they're trying to determine if anybody in the household is affected by Ebola."
Christian Kamara, CEO of Sierra Leone's YMCA, is grateful for the assistance. He says the "outbreak of the Ebola deadly disease is something that is psychologically really affecting people here. Also, the economy is going down as well, because life is really not that normal."
He says there are no longer social gatherings in Sierra Leone, as people are trying to avoid physical contact with one another to prevent the disease's spread. People are unable to work because of quarantines. Schools are closed, including those the Y operates — most of its facilities are closed — and there is no longer commercial air service into the country.
So far, Missoula's Y has raised about $3,000 to support the Y in Sierra Leone. Part of the money is being used to produce radio ads in the local language, telling how to recognize the symptoms of Ebola and promoting a hotline for medical help.
Right now the international community is raising tens of millions of dollars to fight Ebola in West Africa. The money coming out of Missoula so far is but a fraction of that, but Kamara says it makes a real difference.
"We don't need millions of dollars, we don't need thousands of dollars," Kamara says. "Whatever we could have, that could be able to support a family, support a home, support a community, support a village not to die, I think that's what we need now.
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Transcript
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
While Western governments and international agencies fight Ebola, smaller efforts come when one community reaches out to another. And though these efforts don't have much money, they make a difference in some people's lives.
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
Consider the YMCA in Freetown, Sierra Leone. It's receiving donations from its sister Y in Missoula, Montana. Eric Whitney reports.
ERIC WHITNEY, BYLINE: Walk into the Y in Missoula and in one of the hallways there's a bulletin board with pictures and information about the Y in Sierra Leone. Chris Siegler, who's been on the board here since 1983, shows me around.
CHRIS SIEGLER: Here's our international board. Sometimes they do mission work; they go to Missoula medical aid, all kinds of things.
WHITNEY: Siegler and his wife Jeannie were Peace Corps volunteers in the country in the late '60s. They went back in 2002 after Sierra Leone's 11 year civil war ended, and they discovered the Y in its capital, Freetown.
SIEGLER: There's a tremendous similarity between the Y in Sierra Leone and the Y in Missoula, and the fact that's constantly looking for how can the organizations serve the community better?
WHITNEY: Missoula's Y has been raising money for Sierra Leone since 2004. And since then it's sent close to $100,000 to help fund programs for kids and teach job skills. They've also brought staff from Sierra Leone's Y to Missoula, including its CEO, Christian Kamara. Siegler and Kamara have been in touch regularly since the Ebola outbreak. We reached him via Skype.
CHRISTIAN KAMARA: We have an outbreak of the Ebola deadly disease. It's something that is psychologically will affect the people here. Also, the economy is going down as well, because life is really not that normal.
WHITNEY: Kamara says that there are no longer social gatherings in Sierra Leone, as people are trying to avoid physical contact with one another to prevent the disease's spread. People are unable to work because of quarantines. Schools are closed, including those the Y operates. Kamara says his organization is trying to help support the country's severely underfunded health system.
KAMARA: Most of our medical staff have died. We've lost three medical doctors, as I'm talking to you. We've lost over 40 to 50 nurses.
WHITNEY: The Y in Sierra Leone is buying basic protective medical gear for local health workers, like sterile gloves and gowns, buckets and bleach. Some of the money for that is coming from Missoula's YMCA, says Chris Siegler.
SIEGLER: Our obvious question was, well, how can we help? And their answer was that you can help by just giving us some funds for basic supplies. The chlorine buckets, the chlorine bleach and they've gone from there to beginning to deliver food to families that are quarantined in their home for the 21 days while they're trying to determine if anybody in the household is affected by Ebola.
WHITNEY: The money's also paying for radio ads, like this one, in the local language; telling people how to recognize the symptoms of Ebola and giving a phone number they can call for medical help.
(SOUNDBITE OF RADIO AD)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (Foreign language spoken).
WHITNEY: So far, Missoula's Y has raised about $3,000 to support the Y in Sierra Leone. The money's just a tiny fraction of the millions in aid headed to that country, but Christian Kamara says they're grateful.
KAMARA: We don't need millions of dollars, we don't need thousands of dollars, whatever we could have that could be able support a family, support a home, support a community, support a village, not to die - I think that's what we need now.
WHITNEY: For NPR News, I'm Eric Whitney in Missoula, Montana. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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