University students now have the chance to help stop the largest Ebola outbreak in history, which is currently spreading through West Africa at an epidemic rate. The Ebola outbreak is the first in West Africa’s history and continues to escalate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The University’s YMCA has partnered with the University organization Scientific Animations Without Borders Organization to launch a campaign to raise $20,000 to help the victims of the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. They are asking the student body to raise the money for this effort. Half of the money will go toward assisting the countries through humanitarian means, and the other half will go toward the production of educational videos provided by SAWBO.

SAWBO creates animated videos that are assisted by voice technology to educate people on topics such as health care or agriculture. These videos work as an alternative education source for countries with largely illiterate populations through audio and visual format.

“In the case of the Ebola animations, we work with groups of experts around the world to develop a script on what is Ebola, how you can prevent Ebola, what are the symptoms of Ebola and other basic health care issues around the disease,” said SAWBO Director Barry Pittendrigh.

Pittendrigh said educating the public on how to recognize the disease and what to do in case of contact is a strong method of containing the disease. However, the SAWBO animations are still in the process of being created for many countries on the West African Coast, such as Sierra Leone, which shut down for three days starting on Sept. 19, in an effort to contain the disease. Preventative measures, like the shutdown, increase the importance for the videos for those contaminated and under lockdown, Pittendrigh said.

Partnerships between community and educational groups such as the University YMCA and the YMCA at Njala University in Sierra Leone have strived to create learning opportunities for students and meaningful community relations between the groups.

“We wanted to have more of a community organization approach toward our partnership with the Global Health Initiative,” said YMCA Program Coordinator Enrique Rebolledo.“We reached out to the Sierra Leone YMCA, and they were excited as well that we could form a possible partnership with them.” 

The University’s YMCA established the partnership in June 2014, two months before the initial outbreak of Ebola. The outbreak has shifted the YMCA’s plans, but the goal of a long-term partnership and solution process remains.

Several student organizations have already begun fundraising projects to raise the money, such as Amnesty International and Invisible Conflicts.

“All proceeds will be donated through Y-USA to guarantee that all of the money will be sent to Sierra Leone without wiring fees or deductions,” Rebolledo said.  

He added that students and faculty members can donate in-person at the University YMCA front desk or online at universityymca.org. 

Helena Igbo, sophomore in LAS and former SAWBO intern, said she is participating in the campaign because she wants to help increase student awareness of global issues.

“It’s an epidemic; it’s a viral disease, a contagious disease, that can happen anywhere, and so the fact is that if we’re not more aware of what’s going on, then it can happen here and we could all be in a state of not knowing what to do,” said Igbo.

The YMCA and SWABO partnership is currently looking for students who speak West African languages to translate SAWBO videos being produced for the impacted countries. If interested in assisting or making a donation, go to universityymca.org.

Tea can be reached at [email protected].