By Alltimepost.com.
London-based Voluntary organization, BTWSC said Friday that Africans at home and abroad were doing their parts in the fight against Ebola, and challenged Western media to give such efforts fair coverage.
The organization’s coordinator, community activist and Ghanaian-born barrister Awula Serwah in a statement in London said: “Whilst it is important to raise funds and awareness of the Ebola outbreak, we should be respectful of the continent of Africa.”
She stressed the need for Western media to give fair coverage to initiatives by community organizations, particularly African-led ones, in Britain and on the African continent.
“It is important to challenge the white savior syndrome, which ignores African efforts. Recently I listened to a Today program on BBC with Robtel Neajai Pailey, a Liberian studying for her Development Studies doctorate at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) and Band Aid trustee and concert promoter Harvey Goldsmith, and in answer to why his organization did not support any of the African musical efforts, Goldsmith admitted that he was not aware of the Ebola-awareness recordings made by artists from Africa.”
Serwah posited that cursory research would have revealed that across West Africa there have been recordings and videos to fundraise and raise awareness.
These efforts, she continued include the Collectif Africa Stop Ebola’s eponymous single, available via all major online vendors, including iTunes and Amazon.co.uk.
She also referred to the Liberian acts Shadow, D12 and Kuzzy which have brought out ‘Ebola In Town,’ adding that 2C, Knowledge and Kouu 88 have released the self-descript ‘Ebola Awareness Song.’
“When I was Mayoress of Harrow, I organized a number of fundraisers in aid of various charities. As a pan-Africanist, I felt I had to do something to support the Ebola response.”
Serwah disclosed that she was organizing a fundraising dinner on Saturday December 6 to raise funds for Médecins Sans Frontières UK’s work in the Ebola-hit countries in west Africa.
She acknowledged receipt of some fantastic items for the raffle and auction ranging from paintings, signed CDs, vouchers for dinners, to a six-night stay in a South African resort including meals and a tour.
According to her, the fundraising dinner, being jointly sponsored by BTWSC and another London-based group, African Histories Revisited will take place at Best Western Cumberland Hotel in Harrow, north London.
Serwah is also a member of Elbow Out Ebola (EOA), a collection of African-led organizations and individuals, which is organizing a conference to share knowledge and experiences in the fight against Ebola, on Friday Dec. 5 at Zanzibar, Sydenham, south London, followed by a fundraising cultural event in the evening of the same day.
“The other narrative we get in the Western media is aid and personnel going to west Africa from the West.
“But are we aware that earlier this month, African business leaders meeting in Ethiopia pledged $28.5m to help the African Union mobilize, train and deploy healthcare workers in the Ebola-affected west African countries?,” asks Serwah.
“Or that African countries have pledged to send more than 2,000 health workers to the Ebola-affected countries?”
She believed that the Ebola experience should provide the basis for soul-searching.
Hear her: “We also need to look at who is benefiting from the exploitation of Sierra Leone’s diamonds, and the social responsibility of international companies operating in countries affected by the Ebola outbreak.”
Do these global corporations use part of their profits on building the infrastructure for the use of the local people in the countries whose resources they are exploiting? Surely corporate social responsibility should be reflected wherever these global companies operate.”
BTWSC is a pan-London voluntary organization that uses the creative arts to develop potential, raise aspirations, and promote social inclusion. It works with youths, adults and inter-generational audiences. Its core areas of delivery cover music industry, event planning and African history education and programs
The organization, which is now formally known as BTWSC, started out as Beyond The Will Smith Challenge.
African Histories Revisited is an organization that researches, publishes and delivers events on African British and global African histories.
