Project C.U.R.E. Won't Send Staff To Ebola Hot Zone
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4) - One routine is changing for a charitable organization in the Denver metro area as Project C.U.R.E. won't be sending staffers to countries battling Ebola.
Project C.U.R.E., based in Centennial, will still coordinate sending supplies. They've sent 10, 40-foot containers of supplies to the West Africa, but since the outbreak, and for the near future, the supplies will be the only things going into the Ebola hot zone.
Project C.U.R.E. Director of Clinics Corinne Domahidy makes frequent trips to Africa to supply aid to those in need.
"We go in and do training programs, we help set up the facilities," Domahidy said.
She was in the Congo this summer when Ebola spread there.
"It was really frightening because we're in an area where they're already reusing and washing gowns and gloves and masks for everyday surgeries that are disposable gowns," Domahidy said.
While she says the containers of supplies will continue going straight to the Ebola hot zone, her volunteers and staff will not.
"As an aid organization our goal is to save lives and deliver health and hope to the world, so we're not going to turn away from that; but I would never put lives at risk of our volunteers and staff when it's unnecessary," she said.
Project C.U.R.E. implemented the moratorium when the outbreak in West Africa escalated. Domahidy says the partnerships they've forged on the ground will ensure that their supplies are delivered. And for now, that's enough,
"I felt like we have to continue to do our part. We can't turn away from it, but now we've got to get really real with the risk-to-benefit ratio, and keeping my volunteers and staff safe is my main priority."
Domahidy says they are monitoring and evaluating the situation every day. She has two upcoming trips scheduled for Ghana and Mauritania, but she says right now the chances those will happen are slim.
LINK: Project C.U.R.E.
