3 minute read
Emergency Africa COVID vaccines appeal
Amadou, a key health worker in Guinea, is waiting for vaccines to arrive.
Ubuntu is a simple but profound African philosophy. It is often translated: “I am, because we are.”
Ubuntu recognises the worth of every person. It says we must work together to overcome challenges.
As we regain freedoms, thanks to the NHS vaccination roll-out, millions of people in low-income countries are now facing a third aggressive wave of COVID-19 with no vaccination in sight and no possibility of hospital care. In July, the World Health Organisation alerted the world that coronavirus deaths were rising rapidly in Africa, surging by 80% in four weeks. The Delta variant is sweeping through African nations and it’s the poor and the frail who are dying.
If you’ve had your vaccine doses, you’ll know the relief of feeling that you and your loved ones are safe. The truth is, 8 out of 10 COVID vaccine doses have gone to people in higher income countries.
Meanwhile, less than 2% of Africa’s population are fully vaccinated. This is an injustice. It’s simply not right that the poorest in Africa are last in line to be protected against the virus.
Amos 5:24 says, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
In a step towards vaccine equality, Mercy Ships has launched an emergency appeal to help meet the funding shortfall for vaccination delivery across West and Central Africa.
Together with Africa
The upsurge in cases across Africa is endangering the lives of the most frail. Their immune systems are weakened, so they are more likely to become seriously ill if they contract COVID-19. The limited number of African key workers are also at risk. People like Amadou - a 46-year-old nurse and beloved Guinean community leader, simply known locally as ‘the doctor’.
Amadou administered vaccines to babies and continued to care for his patients - despite a large tumour growing in his own throat for over 15 years. Thankfully, Mercy Ships were able to reach Amadou before COVID-19 hit Guinea, and we removed this growth - otherwise his community could have lost the only person they called ‘doctor.’
People living in many African nations with fragile health systems already have little or no access to medical care.
Amadou, after the surgery to remove his facial tumour.
Vaccinate the Vulnerable
Please, will you give your urgent donation now to this emergency appeal to vaccinate the vulnerable across West and Central Africa.
Your gift of £20 could cover the cost to fully vaccinate 5 frontline healthcare workers in Liberia; £45 could transport 1,593 doses of vaccines to rural communities; and £90 would provide training on the new vaccines, testing and treatments for all health workers in two healthcare facilities in rural Benin.
Many African countries lack doctors and the necessary medicines and equipment to respond to the pandemic.
Please give your urgent donation right now. Visit mercyships.org.uk/together to stand side by side with our fellow brothers and sisters.
Approximately 70% of hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa don’t even have access to a pulse oximeter, to measure the saturation of oxygen in a patient’s blood, a vital and low-cost tool to fight COVID-19.
Now, exhausted nurses and overstretched doctors, like Amadou, are desperately waiting for COVID-19 vaccines to arrive. They are praying it will come in time to save their family, friends and neighbours.
