TORONTO – The Steelworkers Humanity Fund (SHF) is contributing $25,000 to combat spread of deadly Ebola virus in West Africa.
“The Ebola outbreak has killed over 1,000 people in three of the world’s poorest countries – Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia, and the World Health Organizations warns that the outbreak is not yet under control,” said Ken Neumann, President of the Steelworkers Humanity Fund. “In response the Steelworkers Humanity Fund is making a $10,000 contribution to Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières, as well as providing $15,000 to a grassroots NGO in Liberia to help prevent the spread of the deadly virus.”
The Movement for Labour Rights and Justice (MOLAJ) will undertake an urgently needed public health education campaign with trade union members, and in communities, to provide workers and their families with the information they need to protect themselves against the Ebola virus. MOLAJ will provide hand washing buckets and disinfectants.
MOLAJ is a local civil society organization with links to the United Workers’ Union of Liberia (UWUL) and the Firestone Agricultural Workers’ Union of Liberia (FAWUL).
The Steelworkers Humanity Fund is a registered Canadian Charity funded by USW member contributions that has for more than 25 years supported international development projects, provided emergency humanitarian aid for disasters around the world and contributed to food banks across Canada.
The Steelworkers Humanity Fund, created in 1985, was the first union-based international development organization of its kind, and it continues to be a practical expression of the USW’s commitment to active solidarity with those fighting poverty, injustice, and joblessness around the world. Individual USW members contribute to the Fund through clauses negotiated by the Union into collective agreements that provide for pay-roll deduction of charitable contributions, and for matching employer contributions. In total roughly $1 million is raised in this way to support international relief, anti-poverty and labour development programs as well as relief efforts and natural disaster assistance.