Speech given by Patrick Seger, Country Director of Samaritan's Purse Cambodia
Luncheon for the American Chamber of Commerce
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
17 October 2014
I would like to thank Ronald Marvin, AmCham Executive Director and Daniel Mitchell, head of the CSR Committee for extending the invitation to Samaritan’s Purse to speak today regarding the Ebola outbreak and the potential threat to Cambodia. It is a privilege to be able to share with all of you today.
Samaritan’s Purse has been at the frontlines of combating the Ebola outbreak in West Africa over the past few months. The outbreak became especially personal when a Samaritan’s Purse physician, Dr. Kent Brantly, contracted Ebola while serving in Liberia.
Samaritan’s Purse is a Christian international relief organization headquartered in the U.S., dedicated to meeting the physical and spiritual needs of people who are victims of war, poverty, natural disasters, disease and famine. Since its founding in 1970, Samaritan’s Purse has worked in more than 100 countries around the world.
Last year, Samaritan’s Purse brought in 460 million dollars, a significant portion of which came from donations to the organization.
The medical branch of Samaritan’s Purse — World Medical Mission — helped to staff 38 hospitals in 29 countries in 2013. Nearly 1,000 medical professionals served short-term assignments through the program, and 25 doctors accepted two-year positions through the post-residency program. Dr. Kent Brantly was serving in Liberia through that very program.
In an article published at the end of August, the Washington Post noted that Samaritan’s Purse “maintains a reputation of being among the first to combat the worst public health crises around the world.” Ken Isaacs, our vice president of Programs and Government Relations, and former Director of the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, has testified before Congress on multiple occasions. He gave his most recent testimony on August 7 before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs regarding the Ebola outbreak.
In the past few decades, Samaritan’s Purse has responded to worldwide disasters and crises. Its first major response as an NGO was in Somalia in 1992. Since then, we have responded to conflicts in Bosnia, Kosovo, Sudan and South Sudan; the genocide in Rwanda — where we opened our first field office in 1994; and major natural disasters in Honduras, Southeast Asia, the United States, Haiti, Japan and most recently the Philippines.
Samaritan’s Purse currently operates 13 active field office on 4 continents with a wide array of programs assisting in relief, recovery and rehabilitation. Over 2,500 nationals and 200 expatriates are employed in these offices. An additional 600 people work at headquarters.
Samaritan’s Purse works hard to operate effectively and safely in the event of a disaster or crisis through its disaster management structures. The DART, Disaster Assistance Response Team, deploys to the field in order to meet the immediate needs in affected areas. At headquarters, the IMT, Incident Management Team, manages and coordinates the response. Samaritan’s Purse carries out large-scale trainings of this system in order to increase its effectiveness.
Samaritan’s Purse maintains several strategically-placed staging areas around the world — stocked with supplies and ready to respond in the event of a disaster. The organization has an epidemiologist on staff, as well as technical experts in security, WASH and agriculture and livelihoods.
In July 2003, the Samaritan’s Purse office here in Cambodia opened as a response to the needs of amputees. Over the years, our presence and the scope of our work have spread. Today, Samaritan’s Purse implements programs for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH); education; health and nutrition; migration and human trafficking; disaster relief; and agriculture and livelihoods.
These programs are currently active in the provinces of Banteay Meanchey and Kratie. However, we have worked in 8 additional provinces over the last 11 years and devoted more than 10 million dollars toward relief and rehabilitation projects in Cambodia. In the last four years, we have invested 262 thousand dollars into disaster response. Most recently, we responded to the migration crisis in Poipet in June and the flooding in Kratie in August.
Samaritan’s Purse Cambodia is an active member of the Humanitarian Response Forum and has partnered with other HRF members including UNICEF, Oxfam, IOM, World Vision and Caritas.
Now that I’ve shared an overview of Samaritan’s Purse, I would like to tell you more about our organization’s Ebola response to date.
In February of this year, the Ebola outbreak began in West Africa. A month later, Samaritan’s Purse staff at ELWA Hospital in Monrovia learned of Ebola cases in their region. They began preparations to care for Ebola patients.
In June, ELWA Hospital received its first Ebola patients. As Ebola cases increased over the next month, Samaritan’s Purse assumed responsibility for all direct clinical care of those infected. They quickly realized they were not equipped to fight Ebola on their own. Dr. Kent Brantly stated in his testimony before the U.S. Senate, “We began to call for more international assistance, but our pleas seemed to fall on deaf ears.”
Samaritan’s Purse coordinated its efforts with Doctors Without Borders, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health. Doctors Without Borders and Samaritan’s Purse were the two primary international NGO responders during this time — Doctors Without Borders working in Guinea and Sierra Leone and Samaritan’s Purse in Liberia.
On July 23, Dr. Kent Brantly, the medical director for the ELWA isolation unit, began to feel ill. He quickly isolated himself as a precaution. Three days later, he tested positive for Ebola.
While still in Liberia, Brantly was given a dose of an experimental drug that had yet to be tested on humans. Samaritan’s Purse worked with the State Department, World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, to transfer Brantly to Emory Hospital in Atlanta. Nineteen days later, Emory discharged Brantly and declared him virus-free.
As the outbreak worsened in Liberia, Samaritan’s Purse evacuated all non-essential staff and began to reevaluate its strategies. Misinformation, inadequate health infrastructures and a mistrust of health workers created a challenging environment in which to combat the outbreak. Overcrowded hospitals without adequate protocols to prevent spread of the disease contributed to the spread of the virus. Many people who contracted Ebola stayed at home out of fear — spreading the virus to their entire family.
It was clear to the international community that new response strategies were needed — for the safety of first responders and West Africans at risk of Ebola.
It’s important to note that prevention is possible. The Samaritan’s Purse office in Liberia employs 507 nationals — none of whom have become infected. Both they and their families have remained virus-free, a testament to the effectiveness of Ebola prevention protocols advocated and practiced by Samaritan’s Purse.
Lessons learned to date showed that public awareness campaigns with religious congregations and home-based treatments were most effective.
Earlier this year, Samaritan’s Purse launched public awareness campaigns in Liberia that reached nearly 450,000 individuals. Since mid-August a church-focused campaign has educated nearly 6,000 religious leaders with congregations that total another 450,000 people. Samaritan’s Purse continues to respond to invitations from churches and mosques to provide Ebola education and awareness.
On October 2, a 747 cargo jet chartered and stocked by Samaritan’s Purse arrived in Liberia carrying 100 tons of protective equipment and supplies.
Going forward, Samaritan’s Purse will oversee construction and supervision of Community Care Centers in high-transmission areas. Liberians will be trained to run 10-bed facilities that provide basic supportive care. Samaritan’s Purse is prepared to build and manage up to 15 Community Care Centers in rural areas.
Samaritan’s Purse will also offer interim home-based interventions. Staff will train health workers to provide hygienic, supportive care for infected community members and will distribute 3,000 care kits.
Samaritan’s Purse will continue to provide infection prevention and control information to the public through awareness campaigns. Up to 50,000 kits filled with basic hygiene items will be distributed to campaign participants. The focus is to educate an additional 300,000 people in high-transmission areas throughout the country.
The growth of this Ebola outbreak is now exponential. Since its discovery in 1976, up until the last outbreak in 2013, there were over 2,000 known infections leading to 75% of those people dying. This year, 48% of Ebola cases diagnosed have resulted in deaths — including those outside of Africa. On Friday, a UN special envoy on Ebola stated that the number of cases is doubling every 3 to 4 weeks. They said the response needs to be 20 times greater in order to control the rapid advance.
At this time, I would like to invited Dr. Tharanga Diyunugala, the Health Program Manager of Samaritan’s Purse, onstage to discuss the disease itself and public health implications here in Cambodia.
