i3 - July/August 2017 - 28

THE EBOLA EPIDEMIC

In 2015 and 2016, OMPT applied its expertise and technology in West Africa to train
the CDC, the U.S. Embassy and CRS to
fight the Ebola outbreak.

JULY/AUGUST 2017

During the 2014-2016 outbreak, the mortality rate for people
who contracted Ebola was more than 70 percent. More than
11,000 people died. Prevention efforts were paramount to defeating the virus, and public education and awareness was central to
these efforts.
The challenge with educating rural communities was distrust
of the government. In 2014 The Economist reported that in
Sierra Leone, people would run
from aid worker vehicles and lie to
health workers about the presence
WHEN NGOS EQUIP FIELD WORKERS
of deceased Ebola victims.
WITH SMALL, BATTERY-POWERED
According to the article, "Some
PROJECTORS TO SHOW LOCALLY PRODUCED
Sierra Leoneans say they fear that
VIDEOS TO COMMUNITIES IN NEED, THE
the government wants to sell the
RESULTS OFTEN SURPASS EXPECTATIONS.
blood of Ebola patients, or that it
will remove patients' limbs for ritual purposes. Others think health workers will inject them with
Ebola, or that the ubiquitous chlorine disinfectant spray will
give them the disease, or simply that the virus is an invention
to help the government bring in donations."
Educational videos distributed with OMPT's projectors were
a perfect solution. The NGO's using OMPT's method had simple
but important goals. First, people must learn to identify the
symptoms of Ebola. Next, they needed to convince people to stop
eating bushmeat, specifically fruit bats which were the source of
human contraction of Ebola. Lastly, they needed to convince
people to stop at border checkpoints, which were designed to
identify and quarantine Ebola carriers, and which people would
avoid simply as a matter of convenience.
OMPT Founder
Matthew York
works with rural
communities across
the world to
make educational
videos in their
native language.

EFFICACY

Projects that use OMPTs method of video education often succeed,
but it's difficult to attribute success directly to the projectors. In
Guinea-Bissau, for example, there is conclusive evidence that
shows Ebola knowledge increased, but the deployment of OMPT's
projectors was one part of a diverse
strategy of outreach and education
that included more conventional
methods. Over the course of a year
and a half OMPT trained more than
60 organizations in West Africa,
deployed 200 projector kits and
reached tens of thousands of people
with Ebola prevention education.
Later, the CDC purchased an additional 4,000 projectors. Fortunately,
the Ebola epidemic officially ended
on May 6, 2016.
Moving forward, OMPT has big
goals. The organization is working
on developing its own custom, durable projector with a bigger battery
and louder speaker. This summer
they will be in Macedonia, India,
Nigeria and South Sudan. To learn
more about these projects, or how to
support OMPT, visit their website
or Facebook.
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

All photographs courtesy of Matthew York

Elton said, they walked "up and down in the
pouring rain, and cold, through rivers and
streams, along the coasts, in dugout canoes,
[and in] endless mud."
OMPT and CEASPA trained the Ngobe
to make and disseminate their own videos
with 10 people making videos and 20 people trained to make presentations with the
projectors. They gathered together in wet
thatch huts. Still, enthusiasm among the
Ngobe beneficiaries has been both encouraging and sobering. The Ngobe traveled
great distances to see the videos. In one
instance, OMPT received a report that
a Ngobe woman's child died en route.
Jesus Alemancia, a CEASPA Project
Coordinator, reported back to OMPT
shortly after they had rolled out their first
few videos. "First we saw astonishment," he
said. "Some people had never seen videos
before. Then astonishment toward the
equipment itself and because people of the
community saw themselves in the videos,
sometimes speaking the native language.
They were happy to see themselves in the
videos, recognize places and situations going
on within their country that they otherwise
would not have been able to see. Everyone
wants to see more videos - longer videos."

i3 - July/August 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of i3 - July/August 2017