African Stars Come Together To Demand Action on Ebola

 

Campaigning and advocacy organization ONE has brought together fourteen African artists to compel African leaders do more – and rapidly – to fight the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and take action to reinforce national health systems to prevent and control future outbreaks.

In a video, well-known artists Akon (Senegal) Fally Ipupa (DRC), Angélique Kidjo (Benin), Danai Gurira (Zimbabwe), Ice Prince, Femi Kuti, Desmond Elliot and Praiz (Nigeria); Mafikizolo and T-bo Touch (South Africa), Victoria Kimani (Kenya), Diamond (Tanzania) Magasco (Cameroon) and Wax Dey (Cameroon) are joined by a Liberian nurse who treated Ebola patients and an Ebola survivor in making this call .

The video restates the call by African Union Chair, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, for all African leaders to take more responsibility and act urgently by providing more trained personnel, materials, financing and international coordination to all affected countries. ONE’s campaign is concentrating on making sure governments deliver their promises and increase their response.

The video, which is completely silent, highlights how the world waited too long to act, and over 5,000 lives were lost as a result. The video ends with a call to action for citizens to sign ONE’s petition. The petition asks world leaders to step up and provide more trained personnel, materials, financing and international coordination to help stop Ebola.

 

 

“The world’s initial response to the Ebola outbreak was too slow, too uncoordinated and as a result too costly if you consider that over 5,000 lives were lost,” said Dr Sipho Moyo, Executive Director of ONE Africa. “We need to see an acceleration of coordinated efforts if we are to stop Ebola in its tracks. In the spirit of African solidarity, our leaders have stood with the people of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea in their fight against Ebola. However, given the magnitude of the crisis, there is need to scale up the commitments both in cash and in kind; and in the long run the need to invest in strengthening of national health systems across most of our African countries cannot be overstated if we are to avoid similar outbreaks in the future.”

Congolese musician Fally Ipupa stated: “We are waiting for African nations to heed the African Union call to step up and lead the way, effectively responding to this heartbreaking crisis. DRC stopped Ebola. Nigeria Stopped Ebola. The countries still affected need all African countries to do more to stop it there, starting with sending more healthcare workers to the affected countries. This is a humanitarian crisis that demands the attention of not only the entire continent, but the entire world.”

“African governments have made pledges and given support, with international donors making meaningful contributions,” expressed Dr Nkosazana Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission. “However, more needs to be done faster to contain the virus and to create sustainable systems to prevent the recurrence of such public health emergencies. Thus, while our first priority needs to be containing this Ebola outbreak, it is equally important that Africa and the world take bold steps now to invest in strengthening health systems so that future tragedies of this kind can be stopped in their tracks.”

ONE is a campaigning and advocacy organization backed by more than 6 million people taking action to end extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa.

Ebola Response Tracker: www.one.org/ebolatracker

To sign the petition: http://act.one.org/sign/ebola_africa