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Idris Elba, soccer stars launch campaign against Ebola
Actor Idris Elba and a host of international soccer stars of Africa origin have launched a public awareness campaign on Wednesday to help halt Ebola epidemic currently ravaging three countries in West Africa and to recognize the African health workers fighting the deadly disease – who have been largely ignored by the mainstream media.
The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 6,000 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
The Africa United campaign (www.weareafricaunited.org), unveiled ahead of the African Cup of Nations draw in Equatorial Guinea’s capital Malabo on Wednesday, broadcasts information on the disease and how to stop it spreading in French, English, Krio and other local languages.
Messages will be sent out to the three countries and their neighbors via television, radio, billboards and phone text messages, said organizers.
“For me the battle against Ebola is a personal one,” said Elba, whose parents are from Sierra Leone and Ghana.
“To see those amazing countries in West Africa where my father grew up and my parents married being ravaged by this disease is painful and horrific,” said Elba, who came to fame in TV series ‘The Wire’ and played Nelson Mandela in the biopic ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom’.
In one of the campaign’s spots, Elba plays a football coach giving a halftime talk during West Africa’s “life or death” match against Ebola and passing on tips on how to spot the disease and prevent new infections.
