A California relief organization is sending more than a quarter million N95 respirators to help protect health workers on the front lines of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Responding to widespread PPE shortages, the aid package, which also includes eye protection and protective coveralls—all donated by 3M—is the largest announced shipment of N95s to date in response to the Ebola crisis.
The nonprofit Direct Relief, now in its 69th year, shipped the aid from its warehouse in Santa Barbara headed for Bunia, in the eastern region where the outbreak is centered.
Friday’s shipment also contained essential drugs—including antibiotics, deworming treatments, medications for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, gastrointestinal drugs, oral rehydration salts, and water purification supplies—to ensure primary care continues unhindered by the current public health emergency.
“An effective Ebola response has to do two things at once: contain the virus, and help the broader health system keep functioning,” said Dr. Jeffrey Samuel, a clinical pharmacist and Direct Relief’s regional director for Africa.
In addition to deaths from the Ebola outbreak itself, many die from loss of access to primary medical care. For instance, during the 2014 Ebola crisis in West Africa, more than 10,000 people died from malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis because clinics shut down, people stopped seeking care out of fear, and health systems buckled under the strain.
That death toll nearly matched the 11,325 lives Ebola itself claimed in the outbreak.
“That is why Direct Relief is delivering not only PPE and supportive care medicines for Ebola, but also medicines and supplies that help partners continue primary care, chronic disease care, maternal health services, and other essential healthcare during the outbreak.”
Since May, Direct Relief has shipped more than $10 million in medicine and medical supplies to DRC to treat patients, help protect health workers, and limit the spread of the disease.
They partner with VillageReach, a global health nonprofit working across Africa to transform health care delivery to reach everyone. VillageReach will coordinate the distribution with DRC’s Ministry of Public Health to ensure these critical resources reach frontline health workers wherever they are.
VillageReach will train and mobilize 600 community health workers and facilitators for early case detection and contact tracing, strengthen diagnostics through secure transport of lab samples, maintain routine immunization services, and combat misinformation about treatment.
“The arrival of this PPE is critical to protecting frontline health workers and stopping the spread of Ebola,” said VillageReach’s DRC Country Director Freddy Nkosi. “Working alongside the Ministry of Health, and with support from Direct Relief, VillageReach is helping ensure these supplies reach the last mile — so health workers can safely continue providing essential care to their communities.”
Since 2023, Direct Relief has provided $17.5 million in medical support for diabetes care in DRC, including insulin, needles, test strips, and refrigerators for cold storage of temperature-sensitive medications.
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Headquartered in Santa Barbara, Direct Relief has quite an origin story:
William Zimdin, a wealthy Estonian businessman who had to flee Nazi Fascism in Europe, settled in the coastal California town in 1945, and began using his fortune to mail thousands of relief parcels containing food, clothing, and medicine to refugees and displaced people rebuilding their lives in postwar Europe.
He established the William Zimdin Foundation in 1948 and following his death three years later (obit below), his friend Dezso—a Hungarian wartime refugee whom Zimdin had helped rescue—took over management. Mr. Karczag expanded the mission globally and renamed the charity the Direct Relief Foundation in 1957.
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Since then, it’s consistently earned a perfect four-star rating from Charity Navigator and a perfect fundraising efficiency score from Forbes magazine.
According to its website, Direct Relief serves people affected by poverty or disasters across all 50 states and in more than 90 countries “without regard to politics, religion, or ability to pay”.
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