“We are saying deal with Ebola in a way that structures will be in place to handle post-Ebola discussions, because experience or history has taught us that Ebola – there’s always a possibility that it will come again. So how do we put in place structures in the communities, in the districts, in the villages, to ensure that once Ebola comes again, we’ll have structures in place to deal with that immediately and it [won’t] get to where we are now.”
— John Caulker, Executive Director of Fambul Tok, on NPR Weekend Edition (November 1, 2014)
We believe that peace can’t be imposed from the outside, or from the top down, and we believe the same to be true with regard to combating disease. The community led efforts to resist and fight Ebola are meant to both stave the spread of infection while simultaneously investing in the community structures that will prevent its return in the long-term.
We have helped to organize the community level anti-Ebola effort in Sierra Leone, and our approach to fighting the disease is tied to our community first philosophy. Healthy communities are like the immune system of geographically connected collections of people. We will fight Ebola today and invest in community led efforts, and it is through fortifying these communities that we will keep it away tomorrow.
Your contribution will help distribute Peace Mothers-produced soap free of charge across all the villages in Fambul Tok’s network (now numbering close to 2500), while mobilizing local leaders, especially women, to lead in teaching critical Ebola prevention techniques to their communities. And as fear of the outbreak and grief over the sick and dead tear at community networks, your contribution will help Fambul Tok do what it does best: train community leaders in peace-building and conflict resolution, and in the process build whole and healthy communities.