Dear Global Brigades Family:
I am writing you from Ghana with the most urgent note you will have ever received from me.
With a most heavy heart, I must formally announce that Global Brigades is indefinitely suspending Brigades to Ghana, given the Ebola outbreak in the region. Although there are no cases of Ebola in Ghana to date, the negative media coverage and fear that has been propagated about this virus has caused all brigade groups scheduled to visit Ghana this upcoming fall and winter to cancel, postpone, or redirect their brigades to another country. Unfortunately, all indications suggest that it will take many months for the outbreak to be contained, and volunteers will continue to be deterred from traveling to Ghana for the foreseeable future.
But with all of our conviction, we will not stop working in Ghana!
We have to keep empowering the 30 community partners and the thousands of Ghanaians seeking our support. We are extremely well positioned to continue work through our partnerships with local NGOs and governmental agencies that have already been established, namely the Ghana Water Company, Ekumfiman Rural Bank, and Ekumfi District Health Directorate.We have to attempt this strategy as an entire team effort. Our teams in Honduras, Panama and Nicaragua have already stepped up to take on groups that could not go to Ghana and have worked collectively with our North American and European teams to reserve funds from those trips to go toward continuing operations in Ghana.
If you care about the sustainability of maintaining our work and relationships with communities in Ghana, please support the continuation of our projects in Ghana by donating to the Project Continuation fund. All funds raised through this effort will go directly towards the perpetuation of our projects in Ghana.
If you were planning on going to Ghana, please encourage your fellow volunteers to travel to Central America with you instead to continue our student movement for health and development. If we lose our momentum among any of our chapters during this time, it will be increasingly difficult to perpetuate programming in Ghana in the future.
Participate in the Global Day for Ghana. We have designated November 13th as a day for university chapters to raise awareness and funds about our operations in Ghana, the Ebola outbreak, and the effect it is having on the people of the entire continent of Africa. All funds raised on this day will go towards the continuation of our programming in Ghana. To learn more about Global Day for Ghana and how you can get involved, email your Chapter Advisor or admin@globalbrigades.org.
On behalf of our team and community partners in Ghana, thank you and medaasi for your ongoing support of Global Brigades.
Steve Atamian
Chief Empowerment Officer
Global Brigades
