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RetailROI Helps ‘More Than Me’ Combat Ebola in Liberia

11/4/2014

The spread of the deadly Ebola virus has been all over the news lately. Protecting underprivileged children in West Africa from Ebola is one more important effort supported by RetailROI. Katie Meyler, founder of More Than Me, a non-profit dedicated to assisting at-risk youth in Liberia, recently discussed how More Than Me and RetailROI are helping to combat Ebola there.



1. How are children in West Africa put at risk by Ebola?



Everyone is at risk by Ebola, but children specifically in a lot more ways due to lack of understanding how the disease is transmitted. Children by nature are clingy and want to be hugged and touched. Yet if someone is infected and showing symptoms, this is extremely dangerous. The impact on the number of children who are now orphaned is devastating. So far, more than 3,400 children have been orphaned in the last three months due to the disease. We are building a new orphan home/residence hall/school for a number of these children.



2. What is More Than Me doing to provide care and prevention?



Many things. First we started with education and prevention activities. Along with this, we opened our guest house up for children under watch/quarantine and our school as a staging compound for supplies and a place for kids to be safe. Then we purchased our own ambulance and paid for our own team to go into West Point, the worst slum and largest concentrated living quarters in Liberia. There were only five ambulances in the entire country. This alone meant we were able to get new cases to treatment facilities within 30 minutes of the discovery. Before, it took three to four days for an ambulance to arrive. All of these efforts, along with those of many other charity/government groups, have helped reduce the new cases of Ebola in West Point from 40 to 50 per day to one to two because people who are contagious do not infect as many people.



3. How do the efforts of RetailROI assist More Than Me in its Ebola prevention efforts?



RetailROI was one of the first partners to get behind us in the education, prevention and Ebola efforts. They are working now to help provide funds and materials for ongoing efforts as we buy a new property to house orphaned children from the Monrovia area. For more information, visit retailroi.org and morethanme.org.



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