E-CAP Partners Against Ebola

Mercy Corps entered into a sub-award-agreement with Finn Church Aid (FCA) in December 2014 to implement a project under the USAID-funded programme; Ebola Community Action Platform (E-CAP). The FCA-project “ E-CAP Partners Against Ebola”, was designed to achieve two main objectives as part of efforts to stop the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Liberia;  improved infection preventing behavioral practices at community level and strengthened local structures to enable active community response to EVD.

Infection preventing behavioral practices were promoted through door to door awareness activities by the mobilisers and communicators, distribution of flyers and t-shirts and drama performances outreach. School safety measures awareness was done in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and promotion of the Back to School programme.

To enable an active community response to EVD the local structures were strengthened through the training of  a number of stakeholders at community level (including communicators, town chiefs, women leaders, youth leaders, task force members), and through the provision of funds to be used as starter kits for community task forces.

The project reached 55,410 people in the 6 targeted counties in Liberia: Gbarpolu, Grand Cape Mount, Grand Bassa, Bong, Margibi and Montserrado. FCA coordinated the intervention through a consortium of 6 partners, 5 local partners (Project New Outlook (PNO), Sustainable Livelihood Promotion Program (SLPP), Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), Africa 2000 Network (A2N) and Rural Human Rights Activists Programme (RHRAP)), and one international partner (ZOA). The partners worked in their respective project communities in the aforementioned counties, but also extended their interventions outside of their programmatic communities where possible.

Main outcomes:

• Established and trained 257 community task forces in six counties.
• Reached out to 55,410 people with ECAP messages through door-to-door sensitisation.
• Performance of 134 dramas on anti-stigmatisation and ETU promotion for 181 communities leading to visible reduction of stigma in upper Grand Cape Mount County.
• Trained 2,839 (1,620 male and 1,219 female) stakeholders at community level including communicators on Ebola overview, stigma reduction and ETU promotion.
• Conducted 41 live radio talk shows in 5 community radio stations that provided a platform for the exchange of knowledge on EVD amongst rural community dwellers, health experts and relevant stakeholders.
• Carried out three KAP (Knowledge, Attitude and Practice) surveys involving 3,855 individuals in the 6 counties. The surveys were carried out on two separate occasions and showed great improvement in the attitude and behavior of community dwellers toward EVD and its prevention.