RetailROI Rallies Retail Industry to Combat Ebola

Responding to the Ebola virus that has ravaged West Africa, RetailROI has launched a major campaign to help fight the disease in Liberia. Working with its partner charities operating in Liberia, including More Than Me and Love In Action, the #RetailFightsEbola campaign is rallying retailers, manufacturers and individuals to provide much-needed medical and hygienic supplies to Liberia.

RetailROI’s goals are two-fold:

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  Raise $1,000,000 or more in donated goods from retailers and manufacturers. RetailROI is working to provide specific items requested by its partners and the Liberian Ministry of Health, including first aid supplies, food, clothing and linens to help with practical aid and care for survivors and the more than 3,400 children who are newly orphaned from the disease.


• 
  Raise $250,000 in financial contributions from companies and individuals for immediate relief. The financial contributions will help RetailROI partners provide additional relief until the goods arrive. One hundred percent of the funds will go directly to Ebola relief; RetailROI is a foundation that is part of the Giving Back Fund, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

Liberia is one of the world’s poorest countries, with an average national income of only $412 per capita annually. It is also one of the countries hardest hit by Ebola and could see another 90,000 deaths and 171,000 infections by year-end without new efforts against the disease.



RetailROI and its partners began sending aid to Liberia in the summer of 2014, working with More Than Me and Love In Action. In the regions where these groups distributed education, hygiene, food supplies, training and quarantined housing, new cases of Ebola have dropped by 90%. In addition, the response rate for an ambulance to remove an infected person from the hard-hit West Point township of Liberia’s capital city Monrovia dropped from three to four days to 30 minutes.



RetailROI and its partners plan to get shipping containers of needed supplies to Liberia by Jan. 1, 2015, helping a minimum of 300,000 people with the first wave of donations. Visit retailroi.org/ ebolarelief for more information and to join the effort.