Hey guys!! For those of you who were not able to attend the conference call, here is a summary of what was discussed. For those of you who also called in, please feel free to add anything I may have missed or add your thoughts. Okay, most importantly: As of right now, we are going as planned in December. There should not be any changes to our training group. The outbreak in Guinea is looking really good at this point and there would have to be a huge change for the worse for our group to be affected. They said that we should proceed with all of our medical tasks and sending in passport/visa applications. They dont plan to wait for Guinea to be at zero cases since other PC countries have continued their work during past outbreaks and since its rather difficult to contract (better chance of winning the lottery than getting Ebola). Because the outbreak in Guinea began in December 2013, the country is at a much different stage than Sierra Leone and Liberia. There are more control measures in place, isolation areas, and command centers in Guinea and there have been relatively few new cases in recent weeks. All three countries are being treated individually. The programs in each country are completely independent and decisions made regarding one country will not affect the others. They do expect current volunteers to be returned pretty soon, almost for sure before we would leave for staging. The Ebola outbreak has affected access to food and prices have increased at markets. However, this shouldnt affect us too much as our stipend will be adjusted to account for those price changes. We may notice some changes because of the outbreak, but overall our projects shouldnt be impacted too much. Health volunteers wont be allowed in health clinics, but since they dont provide primary care (mostly education), those projects shouldnt suffer too much. Current volunteers have mentioned that they didnt notice much change in their day to day life prior to the temporary removal. Overall, things are looking really good in Guinea and a lot of favorable things are happening. Were expected to go as planned. In the case that you still feel uncomfortable with serving in Guinea due to the outbreak, you should start that conversation with your placement officer. Also, if you have any further questions, email or call Nicole. There will be another conference call next month to update us and touch base. I think thats everything. Sorry for the lengthy post. Hope this is helpful!
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 17:54:40 +0000