SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Tens of thousands of lives have been devastated by Ebola. Community-based and international organizations led the response and in many areas the rapid spread of the disease has abated. But the crisis is far from over. Today, in a letter published on New Field Foundation’s site, over 25 international funders call on the philanthropic community to intensively fund on-the-ground organizations in Africa to support a sustainable response to Ebola and other crises.

As Niamani Mutima of Africa Grantmakers Affinity Group explains, “These community-based groups are vastly underfunded compared to international NGOs, but they are the ones that will remain in the communities long-term, and with support they will build long-term solutions to the challenges they face.”

These are groups like NYONBLEE Care Foundation in Liberia, whose local workers were the only ones going door-to-door talking about Ebola in Grand Bassa County. In just one month of this work, among a population of over 251,000, no new cases were reported.

In Guinea, Association pour la Défense des Droits des Enfants et des Femmes en Guinée (ADDEF-G) released a radio awareness campaign, went door to door, and trained religious leaders to communicate Ebola prevention facts and counter misinformation. As a result, families were more likely to seek testing when sick, and to delay burial rites, which can transmit Ebola, until the deceased were tested and cleared.

These are just two of dozens of on-the-ground organizations with measurable impacts. It is these groups that organizers of the letter, spearheaded by New Field Foundation, The Ebola Crisis Fund and Africa Grantmakers Affinity Group, seek to see strengthened with more funding.

Signers of the letter point out that organizations located in the communities they serve have the trust, networks, and cultural understanding to accomplish what international organizations cannot. Dr. Mosoka Fallah, a Harvard-trained Liberian epidemiologist, confirms this view in a recent For more information, and to discuss directing funds to grassroots organizations, please contact Shira Gitomer at [email][email protected]