Volunteer Center seeks to provide aid to hunger-stricken Sierra Leone
With the Ebola epidemic raging in West Africa, Jessica McDermott, student outreach coordinator for the University of Idaho Center for Volunteerism and Social Action, said many Americans feel there’s nothing they can do to help.
But, she said she isn’t buying into the status quo.
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‘Donations for Ebola’ Jars are stationed in the Info Desks in the Commons and the SUB, as well as in the Center for Volunteerism and Social Action Office. Coordinator of the Volunteerism Center Natalie Magnus said every cent that goes in the jars will go directly to a philanthropic partner that buys rice for needy people in Sierra Leone, who have been impacted by the outbreak of Ebola in their region.
McDermott said she has been hard at work to get relief to Sierra Leone, a West African country that has seen more than 1,200 deaths related to Ebola so far, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
She said the epidemic has created a food shortage in Sierra Leone, and thinks UI students willing to donate money to “Coins for Sierra Leone” can help.
There are three jars set up around campus for donations to help aid Sierra Leone in combatting the Ebola epidemic. There is one located in the Volunteer Center, one at the Idaho Commons Information Desk and the Student Union Building Information Desk.
“There is a food shortage in the Sierra Leone and people are dying by the thousands,” McDermott said. “Coins for Sierra Leone is an effort to provide food to the hungry.”
The fundraising effort is meant to raise money to buy rice for the people living in Sierra Leone overcoming the Ebola epidemic.
She said while the effects of the Ebola epidemic take place thousands of miles away, she feels an immediate need to get involved and help.
“My brother studied abroad in Africa and I got to speak with his host family and that made the people seem real to me,” she said.
McDermott said awareness is the main goal of the fundraising effort. She said Americans have largely gained the mentality that there are always problems in Africa and that’s just the way it is, which she said erases their feeling of responsibility and makes the people in Africa seem less real.
“Africa is not something to brush off,” McDermott said. “It is a matter of having empathy versus seeing Ebola as something that is scary, but far off.”
McDermott said she has always been concerned with social issues and was excited to become a member of the Volunteer Center team so she can work on important projects that impact places that are often marginalized in international politics.
“What needs to change is our perception of Africa as a place where things like this happen, and instead see the U.S.’s hand in African issues,” McDermott said.
She said Americans should to look after others as if they were looking after themselves.
“We need to see them as no different than people here,” McDermott said. “There may be two people diagnosed with Ebola in the states, but there are thousands dying from Ebola in Sierra Leone.”
Abby Overfelt, an Idaho Commons Information Desk attendant, said she has observed how students are interacting with and noticing the new jar on the desk.
“I have not seen many people put money in the jars,” Overfelt said. “People come up and read the paper, but few have put money in it.”
Macklin Brown can be reached at [email protected]