Ebola outbreak

The Liberian refugee is glued to news from West Africa, concerned for family and friends she left behind in 2001.

The deadly virus claimed one friend who contracted it while working as a doctor in a Liberian village.

“As I wake every week we have to touch base with back home,” said Cecilia Dixon, who owns an African grocery store, Chierie International Market, in Old Town. “My husband has five children and I´ve got a sister there. And friends too.”

Cecilia Dixon, shared her fear and concerns with her church, the Epicenter of Worship, in Lansing. It resulted in a fundraising drive for medical supplies like gloves, surgical gowns and hand sanitizer. The congregation is partnered with the Detroitbased Liberian Association of Michigan, which spearheads the drive.

The two drives last month made them realize they need more time, said Lois Holman, president of the association. They collected only about $412 of their $10,000 goal so far.

Future drives are scheduled for Saturday; Sept. 13; 20; and 27 on the Lansing Community College campus.

“We´re doing all we can,” Holman said. “We´re asking for whatever anyone can do to help.”

The chairman of Detroit-based World Medical Relief, Mike Baydoun, has promised to match whatever the association collects at drives, dollar-for-dollar.

“We´re willing to help them out any way they want,” he said. “The World Medical Relief is willing to donate up to a million dollars for what they need.”

The real hurdle will be shipping, he said.

"Because of the cost, we just can´t seem to get anybody to help us transport this stuff from here to Liberia,” Baydoun said

Reports from West Africa appear to grow more grim. Holman said the virus is rampant in Liberia.

“Many people have died,” Holman said. “Many doctors. Many healthcare workers have died. We need a friend, an ally. All our people are dying.”

According to multiple media outlets, the virus has caused more than 600 deaths in Liberia alone. The World Health Organization recently predicted it could spread to as many as 20,000 people throughout West Africa before it´s contained, seven times the number of people who´ve so far contracted Ebola.

According to medical experts, Ebola is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids.

Raising awareness is vital, even as far away as Michigan, said Jacqueline Humphrey, co-director of The Least of These, a Lansing nonprofit that provides humanitarian relief mostly to African countries.

“I do think that it is a very worthwhile cause because as Americans we´re protected from epidemics like this and we don´t realize how blessed we are,” she said. “We´re just a plane ride away from an epidemic that could affect us here.”