IOC to Help Raise Ebola Awareness in Liberia

(ATR) The IOC has pledged Olympic Solidarity funds to help fight Ebola in Liberia.

The IOC and the Liberian National Olympic Committee will distribute supplies and work on an information awareness campaign in seven of Liberia’s 15 counties.

According to a report in allAfrica, 1,400 buckets, 35 thermometers and over 280 cartons of chloride will be distributed starting on Feb. 23 in Liberia.

The information awareness campaign is similar to the one the IOC did in Sierra Leone in conjunction with their NOC.

Sierra Leone NOC secretary general Joseph Nyande told ATR at the ANOC General Assembly in November that Olympic Solidarity helped produce "radio television programs for athletes and even around the country as a whole."

LNOC president Philipbert Browne told allAfrica that Ebola awareness messages will be played on public radios in Bomi, Bong, Grand Cape Mount, Grand Bassa, Margibi and Nimba and Grand Gedeh counties.

Brown said that 20 percent of the supplies donated will go to sporting institutions with the rest of the goods going to community schools.

For the campaign, the IOC and LNOC developed the slogan "Do Not Stigmatize Ebola Survivors, They are our people, embrace them" to help encourage community togetherness and action towards the deadly disease.

The IOC and LNOC did not return request for comment for this story, and it is not clear if the IOC has worked with Guinea, the third country affected by Ebola.

In November, NOC president Nabi Camara told ATR the situation in the country was "dire."

"We were taken by surprise," Camara said.

"The NOC can’t really do very much. The only thing it can do is help inform people that have contact with it is best to protect themselves so they don’t catch the virus."

Written by Aaron Bauer

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