Liberia’s president has made an impassioned plea
for all nations to commit to the fight against Ebola ahead of a meeting by EU
foreign ministers Monday, under pressure to scale up their response to the
escalating epidemic.
Nobel laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said a generation of
Africans were at risk of “being lost to economic catastrophe” because of the
epidemic, warning that the “time for talking or theorising is over”.
“This fight requires a commitment from every nation that has
the capacity to help — whether that is with emergency funds, medical supplies
or clinical expertise,” she said in an open letter to the world published by
the BBC Sunday.
Full text
In just over six months, Ebola has managed to bring my
country to a standstill. We have lost over 2,000 Liberians. Some are children
struck down in the prime of their youth. Some were fathers, mothers, brothers
or best friends. Many were brave health workers that risked their lives to save
others, or simply offer victims comfort in their final moments.
There is no coincidence Ebola has taken hold in three
fragile states – Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea - all battling to overcome
the effects of interconnected wars. In Liberia, our civil war ended only eleven
years ago.
It destroyed our public infrastructure, crushed our economy and led
to an exodus of educated professionals. A country that had some 3,000 qualified
doctors at the start of the war was dependent by its end on barely three dozen.
In the last few years, Liberia was bouncing back. We realized there was a long
way to go, but the future was looking bright.
Now Ebola threatens to erase that hard work. Our economy was
set to be larger and stronger this year, offering more jobs to Liberians and
raising living standards. Ebola is not just a health crisis – across West
Africa, a generation of young people risk being lost to an economic catastrophe
as harvests are missed, markets are shut and borders are closed.
The virus has been able to spread so rapidly because of the
insufficient strength of the emergency, medical and military services that
remain under-resourced and without the preparedness to confront such a
challenge. This would have been the case whether the confrontation was with
Ebola, another infectious disease, or a natural disaster.
But one thing is clear. This is a fight in which the whole
world has a stake. This disease respects no borders. The damage it is causing
in West Africa, whether in public health, the economy or within communities –
is already reverberating throughout the region and across the world.
The international reaction to this crisis was initially
inconsistent and lacking in clear direction or urgency. Now finally, the world
has woken up. The community of nations has realized they cannot simply pull up
the drawbridge and wish this situation away.
This fight requires a commitment from every nation that has
the capacity to help – whether that is with emergency funds, medical supplies
or clinical expertise.
I have every faith in our resilience as Liberians, and our
capacity as global citizens, to face down this disease, beat it and rebuild.
History has shown that when a people are at their darkest hour, humanity has an
enviable ability to act with bravery, compassion and selflessness for the
benefit of those most in need.
From governments to international organisations, financial
institutions to NGOs, politicians to ordinary people on the street in any
corner of the world, we all have a stake in the battle against Ebola. It is the
duty of all of us, as global citizens, to send a message that we will not leave
millions of West Africans to fend for themselves against an enemy that they do
not know, and against whom they have little defence.
The time for talking or theorizing is over. Only concerted
action will save my country, and our neighbours, from experiencing another
national tragedy. The words of Henrik Ibsen have never been truer: “A thousand
words leave not the same deep impression as does a single deed.
Yours sincerely,
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
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