The call came, and your love responded.
Within days of the Ebola outbreak declaration in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, your compassion was in action.
This is what you make possible — reaching neighbors in crisis at the exact moment they need it most. Your gifts have already helped reach hundreds of thousands of people across the DRC. They are strengthening the very systems needed to contain this deadly virus. When neighbors near and far face disaster, you answer the call — and lives are changed because of it.
Here's how your faith in action is protecting communities from Ebola in one of the most challenging corners of Africa.
Containing Ebola without a vaccine
What makes this outbreak especially difficult is the strain behind it. The Bundibugyo strain of Ebola has no approved vaccine or treatment. That means stopping this outbreak depends entirely on strong prevention, fast detection and trusted community relationships — not a medical shortcut.
The virus is also spreading through regions already strained by conflict and displacement, where fragile health systems and remote terrain make a swift response even harder. In moments like these, faith calls us to act.
Rapid response, rooted in readiness
Infection prevention supplies ready for delivery to health clinics in the DRC.
When the outbreak was declared, your generosity empowered quick action. Working alongside the Ministry of Health, we responded within days.
- Critical supplies delivered in the first week, including infection prevention and control materials to hospitals in Goma and the Bunagana border crossing between DRC and Uganda.
- 125 high-risk health facilities assessed across 12 health zones, identifying gaps in protective equipment, waste management and infection prevention.
- More than 630 frontline health workers trained on Ebola-specific triage, isolation and prevention practices.
When vaccines aren't available, prevention is our most powerful tool. Protecting health workers means communities can keep accessing the care they depend on every day.
Containment starts in communities
Stopping Ebola takes more than medicine. It takes trust.
Local community leaders gather to learn how to recognize Ebola symptoms, share accurate information and protect their communities.
Fear and misinformation can be just as dangerous as the virus. When people hide symptoms or delay care, transmission continues. That's why we’re working through the voices that communities already trust.
Our outreach has:
- Reached more than 200,000 people with accurate information on symptoms, prevention, and when to seek care.
- Trained over 1,000 community leaders in Goma — including faith leaders, teachers, traditional healers and transport workers — to share trusted, life-saving messages.
- Partnered with popular TikTok creators reaching more than four million viewers across eastern DRC, meeting people where they already get their news.
Our teams are also helping strengthen surveillance and deploy digitized contact tracing — finding cases faster and protecting communities from future threats.
Keeping essential care going
Even during an outbreak, life goes on. Babies are born. Children need vaccines. Families need treatment for malaria and other illnesses.
Lutheran World Relief is helping health facilities stay open and safe — improving triage, strengthening infection prevention and supporting quarantine facilities in South Kivu with clean water, sanitation supplies and hygiene materials. Essential care, including maternal and child health services, continues even as Ebola response efforts ramp up.
We're helping health facilities stay open, protecting healthcare workers, supporting communities with trusted information, and working alongside local partners to stop transmission before it spreads further. That's how you contain an outbreak while continuing to provide the essential health services people need every day.
Built on 25 years of partnership
This response is grounded in something that can't be improvised: long-standing relationships. For more than 25 years, we’ve worked alongside communities across the DRC. With an active presence in 28 health zones, we were already there when the outbreak struck — trusted, connected, and ready. Your generosity makes this possible.
Faith in action
This outbreak is serious — and so is the opportunity to put your faith in action. Here are a few meaningful ways to support this work:
- Sign up for eNews, our monthly newsletter packed with the latest updates and stories of the profound change that a love like yours makes possible. It’s the best way to learn about how Lutheran World Relief is working to support neighbors in crisis, both near and far.
- Support neighbors in need through a “Give Where Needed Most” gift. Sharing your love in this way allows our teams to move faster when a crisis begins — before a formal appeal is even launched.
- When disaster strikes, our neighbors need our love — immediately. Consider becoming a Faithful Neighbor! The sustaining love of Faithful Neighbors, our monthly donors, allows us to maintain the long-term presence and readiness that makes a rapid response like this one possible.