Liberian relief effort draws 700 in St. Cloud

They came by the hundreds from all over central Minnesota, lining up to help package meals for Liberians trapped in villages by the Ebola quarantine. West African immigrants and lifelong Minnesotans, parents and grandparents with kids, church and civic volunteers and weekend warriors using a day off to help nameless people a continent away.

Saturday's scene at the River's Edge Convention Center in St. Cloud was the culmination of efforts by several Minnesota nonprofits and task forces to collect and package enough food to fill an entire shipping container with meals for families fighting not just the Ebola outbreak, but now a critical hunger crisis.

While the need was somber, the mood was uplifting.

"Today is beautiful,"said Rosemond Sarpong Owens, one of the organizers. "We are coming out of the arctic blast. In Ghana, where I am from, it is 85 or 90 degrees, no white on the ground. We are here today for Liberia."

Owens said about 700 volunteers worked in three shifts Saturday to package almost 200,000 meals. The goal for the shipment is 285,000. The packages contain life-sustaining staples: fortified rice, soy, goat cheese, protein mix.

Sampson Sarclay, whom Owens described as "the man in charge, small in stature, but very respected," will travel to Liberia to meet the food shipment, which should arrive in about five weeks. It will travel by rail from Minnesota to New York, where it will be put on a vessel and shipped across the Atlantic to Monrovia.

Sarclay, who fled civil war to the United States 1990, says he feels safe from the disease while traveling. "I am protected by the Lutherans in Liberia," he said, pausing as a loud speaker told volunteers that the first shift had just packed 59,000 meals.

The main sponsor, Kids Fighting Hunger, based in Sauk Rapids, hopes to package enough food to feed 1,300 families for a month, said Pam Beard, executive director. "We have almost 700 volunteers and 50 more waiting to help in this huge space with people busy packaging food," she said.

Owens said the event had raised about $30,000 toward a goal of $40,000. "More would help buy fuel for trucks to get the food to rural areas, where they often don't get aid. Much aid arrives in Monrovia and stays in Monrovia," she said.

"It's very sad, the condition in Liberia," said Jeffrey Karbedeh, another organizer. "It is a third-world country, so when a disease like this virus enters into a community, it spreads very fast. With lack of education to stop it, it's even more deplorable."

The communal culture in rural Liberian villages just adds to the crisis, he said.

"People tend to gather together as part of their tradition, to eat together. Many entire families die because of their close association. When Ebola affects one, it can affect the entire community."

His group, ShareCARE International, works to provide better health conditions, improve literacy and help people deprived by poverty, war and situations such as the Ebola crisis.

Karbedeh praised U.S. efforts to contain the virus. "Liberia has one of the highest death rates from Ebola. But things are changing now. The presence of U.S. military and other health practitioners is making a difference."

Abdullah Kiatamba brought 10 volunteers from Brooklyn Park, home to one of Minnesota's largest Liberian communities, to help box food. As executive director of the Minnesota African Task Force Against Ebola, Kiatamba knows the challenge ahead.

"There was a huge crisis around food already in Liberia," he said as he worked the floor of the convention center. "Ebola only complicated the problem."

"Every little step helps alleviate the crisis," Kiatamba said. "And this is a big step today in Minnesota, a powerful message that people are willing to impact lives — to add their purses and their hearts to feed these hungry families."