Sports Helped End Ebola in Liberia
This project's parent organization is L.A.C.E.S
It operates in United States
It uses Football (Soccer)
Entered the Sport for Health Award
More about Sports Helped End Ebola in Liberia
Our project uses the power of sports to help end Ebola in Liberia.
In July of 2014 Ebola spread like wild fire in Liberia. The World Health Organization said that at the peak of transmission Liberia was reporting 400 new cases every week. To date, Liberia has had 10,668 reported cases of Ebola and 4,807 deaths. When Ebola first came into Liberia the people’s levels of denial that Ebola existed ranged from believing that the international workers, whom were doing prevention campaigns, were conducting experiments on them to believing that people were dying from common diseases such as malaria. Liberians did not understand the disease, and did not know the people who were explaining Ebola.
L.A.C.E.S. has been engaging its participants for years, becoming known to the communities through our locally-led sports programs for vulnerable children. The relationships and trust our coaches built with the children, their families and members of the community made it possible for us to effectively educate over 15,000 people on Ebola prevention and provide 2,875 people with personal protective equipment. To-date not a single case of Ebola has been reported in any of L.A.C.E.S. communities.