
To help fight Ebola in Sierra Leone, USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance is working with its partners to provide care kits to families so that they can safely help loved ones when they’re sick.
This is the fifth installment in our Profiles in Courage series in which photojournalist Morgana Wingard compiles snapshots and sound bites from our USAID and Disaster Assistance Response Team staff on the front lines of the Ebola response. Here she talks to the leader of USAID’s Ebola Disaster Assistance Response Team, Bill Berger.
Today the world is facing the largest and most-protracted Ebola epidemic in history. Yesterday, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, President Obama declared the Ebola epidemic in West Africa a top national security priority and announced a clear, comprehensive, and global strategy to stop the outbreak.
From Mount Sinjar in Iraq to vulnerable communities in South Sudan; battling Ebola in West Africa, and in the refugee camps on the Syrian border: This is the first time in our Agency’s history that we have been called on to manage four large-scale humanitarian responses at once—in addition to reaching other vulnerable populations worldwide and preparing communities ahead of natural disasters. We are not working alone. We are grateful to our U.N., NGO, and local partners, who have demonstrated exceptional fortitude and compassion in the face of relentless tragedy.