MONROVIA, October 6 (LINA) - A prelate of the Saint Simon Baptist Church (SSBC) is calling on churches to provide food and non-food items to their needy members in the wake of the economic crisis occasioned by the Ebola outbreak.
Rev. Richard Johnson said the Ebola outbreak has curtailed the free movement of many Liberians who usually move around in search of their daily bread, something, he noted, is also responsible for the loss of lives.
The prelate made the call in an interview with the Liberia News Agency at the Church’s edifice in Monrovia on Monday, when the church distributed assorted food items valued at US$3,000 to some less fortunate members of the church.
The items included 95 bags of 25kg rice, 100 cans of sardines,96 cups of beans, 75 gallons of vegetable oil and 74 canned fish.
He observed that it was time that churches join the government in the fight against the Ebola virus by assisting their members to will help reduce the stress developed as a result of the crisis occasioned by the Ebola outbreak.
Rev. Johnson disclosed that the amount used to purchase the assorted items was given to the church by the Salem Baptist Church in Jenkins Town, Philadelphia, USA, an affiliate of the SSBC for more than 25 years.
For her part, the adviser of a three-man Ebola Response Relief Committee of the SSBC, Mariama Getaweh, said 100 of the church's members, who are mostly less fortunate, are benefiting from the first phase of the distribution.
According to her, the second phase is expected to take place next month, when the committee will target more than a hundred members from the church’s 49 branches in Liberia.
LINA WTD/PSN/TSS/PTK