Sports Helped Protect Children and 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
More about Sports Helped Protect Children and End Ebola in Liberia
In July of 2014 Ebola spread like wildfire in Liberia. According to the World Health Organization, at the peak of transmission Liberia was reporting 400 new cases every week. To date, Liberia has seen 10,668 cases of Ebola and 4,807 deaths, the highest death toll of all the affected countries.
When Ebola first appeared in Liberia, awareness was being conducted by international workers. The people’s levels of denial that Ebola existed ranged from believing that these workers 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 the L.A.C.E.S. communities.