Ebola in the News; and responding financially

In the news: New Vision ran a previous interview they did with Dr. Jonah: http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/9/183/600944 An AP correspondent called Scott last night and filed this story: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h8nLHUlhDiLlgAafCb9-w_9Nki5QD8TCPQK80 And our dear friend Dr. John Spangler wrote a tribute to Jonah for ABC Online that should be available now http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Germs/story?id=3970795&page=1 . . John was part of our original “Africa Team” from college, committed to coming together. He had packed his belongings onto a container in 1997 when the ADF attacked, and due to the ensuing insecurity and chaos never moved here with his family. But his medical text books did! Jonah used those books all through medical school, and the two doctors developed a friendship and connection over the ocean. When John heard of Jonah’s death he wanted to honor him by writing his story. We are grateful for that. It is Saturday morning here, and after a week of hot dry winds blowing in the anticipated December change in seasons, storm clouds broke over us in the predawn hours, and now a dreary steady rain has settled in. This will hamper the MAF efforts to fly blood samples out mid day for delivery to the laboratory just being established in Entebbe, and also make it difficult for access to Kikyo where the road is steep, rutted, and narrow. Our day started with a call from the in-charge medical assistant there requesting that we help him contact MSF to send the burial team because one of the patients died during the night. Sometimes we are a little link between the Ugandans and the foreigners . . . Lastly, many have asked what they can do to help. World Harvest has set up an “Africa Response Fund” to help in this crisis. Right now money for medicine and supplies is pouring into Bundibugyo from huge organizations like UNICEF, and we don’t want to get into that confusion . . . But we do want to take care of Jonah’s family. Scott and I would like to guarantee that each of Jonah’s children is able to be fully educated. School fees were his main concern while alive; caring for his girls and paying for their education was the main reason he found the low government salary a problem. He had chosen to put them in private schools, so we would like to honor that. It costs about $10,000 to fully educate a child from primary up through Senior Six. He has five girls and one child on the way, so that is about $60K. We would also like to build a decent house for his wife who will no longer be eligible for hospital housing. And the third priority, if the response is tremendous, would be to sponsor another student from Bundibugyo to follow in Jonah’s footsteps to medical school, if there are any brave enough to walk his path. Our team will also have extra expenses over the next couple of months as this crisis settles down, for housing for the kids and non-medical people outside the district, for D&G's travel to come and take care of us all. So we thank anyone who wishes to give. Follow the link on the sidebar to go to the World Harvest Mission web site’s giving link.