On Dec. 18, volunteers and Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach staff loaded a 40-foot shipping container in Springfield, Ill., with medical supplies and personal protective equipment to combat Ebola in Sierra Leone. Dr. Patrick Turay, the medical director of Holy Spirit Hospital, a Catholic facility in Makeni, Sierra Leone, requested the specific items included in the shipment from Mission Outreach, a nonprofit ministry of the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis.

Mission Outreach, which has long-standing relationships with communities in West Africa, made an urgent request in September to the 60 hospitals and 18 clinics it works with in Illinois and Wisconsin for specific Ebola-related supplies identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including personal protective gear for caregivers: impermeable gowns, shoe covers that extend up to the knee, eye protection, masks, gloves and also linens. Mission Outreach is continuing to fundraise to support its response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Those wishing to donate to the Mission Outreach Ebola supply efforts may do so through mission-outreach.org or by mail at Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach-Ebola Crisis, P.O. Box 3531, Springfield, IL 62708.

In the CHA brochure, "Disaster Response: Considerations for Catholic Health Care," the association encourages financial contributions to allow relief agencies to purchase exactly what is needed when it is needed. Visit: chausa.org/internationaloutreach/disaster-relief.

Copyright © 2014 by the Catholic Health Association of the United States
For reprint permission, contact Betty Crosby or call (314) 253-3477.