In cooperation with the French Association of the Order of Malta (Ordre de Malte France, OMF), Malteser International is supporting information campaigns and preventative measures in the province of Middle Guinea to impede the further spread of Ebola. In total, the measures will reach 1,825,000 people.
The goal of this three-month project is to inform the population of the symptoms of the disease and how it is transmitted in order to allow them to protect against infection. We are building an effective and sustainable local capacity to fight against the disease on three levels:
- By training 30 staff and managers from local authorities and communities.
- By training 115 nursing sisters.
- By conducting an information campaign amongst the public.
Information campaigns in villages and communities
We work together with local officials and organisations during all of our activities. An important part of our efforts in Guinea is the staging of informational events and educational campaigns in villages and communities. We aim to provide the locals with all of the necessary information about the risks of infection with Ebola, preventative measures against infection: such as food and personal hygiene, as well as how to behave when symptoms are present. They can then carry this new knowledge to their social contacts and families in the wider population. At the same time, OMF organises further training for specialist medical personnel, offers them mobile supervision and supports project coordination.
Additionally, OMF delivers protective equipment such as tents, suits, gloves and boots, as well as cleaning material and disinfectant, to medical centres in remote areas of the province. In the last year, OMF provided a medical centre in Pita with such materials, as well as delivering a further 1.6 tons of other aid supplies to Liberia.
OMF has been working in the region for over thirty years and manages the Order of Malta’s medical centres in Guinea. With its central location between Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Mali und Sierra Leone, Middle Guinea is a strategically important region in the fight against the spread of Ebola. After a fall in the number of new cases of Ebola in Guinea, on the 26th January 2015, Senegal reopened its borders to the neighbouring country for the first time in five months.
