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A shipment containing essential medical aid and personal protective equipment for health workers is staged at Direct Relief's headquarters before departing for the Democratic Republic of Congo to support Ebola response. (Tori Gordon/Direct Relief)
Direct Relief is sending over a quarter million N95 respirators donated by 3M to help protect health workers on the front lines of the Ebola outbreak, responding to widespread PPE shortages reported across eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The donation, which also includes eye protection and protective coveralls donated by 3M, is the largest announced shipment of N95s to date in response to the Ebola crisis.
On Friday, a shipment of 75,000 N95 respirators left Direct Relief’s California warehouse headed to Bunia, capital of DRC’s Ituri province, where the Ebola outbreak is centered. Another batch containing 188,000 N95s is set to ship early this week.
Friday’s shipment also contained essential medicines, including antibiotics, deworming treatments, medications for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, gastrointestinal drugs, oral rehydration salts, and water purification supplies.
In late May, Direct Relief shipped $2.5 million in medicine and medical supplies to treat patients, help protect health workers, and limit the spread of the disease. The shipment to Jericho Road’s Wellness Clinic in Goma included PPE, antibiotics, diagnostics, supportive care medications, chronic disease medications, and field infrastructure and safety equipment.
A Two-Sided Ebola Response Strategy: Protecting Providers, Maintaining Primary Care
A shipment containing essential medical aid and personal protective equipment for health workers is staged at Direct Relief’s headquarters before departing for the Democratic Republic of Congo to support the Ebola response. (Tori Gordon/Direct Relief)
An Ebola outbreak kills people in two ways. In addition to deaths from the disease itself, many die from loss of access to primary medical care. In the 2014–15 West Africa outbreak, more than 10,000 people died from malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis – not Ebola – because clinics shut down, people stopped seeking care out of fear, and health systems buckled under the strain. That death toll nearly matched the 11,325 lives Ebola itself claimed in the outbreak.
“An effective Ebola response has to do two things at once: contain the virus, and help the broader health system keep functioning,” said Dr. Jeffrey Samuel, a clinical pharmacist and Direct Relief’s regional director for Africa. “That is why Direct Relief is delivering not only PPE and supportive care medicines for Ebola, but also medicines and supplies that help partners continue primary care, chronic disease care, maternal health services, and other essential healthcare during the outbreak.”
Working With VillageReach for Last-Mile Delivery in DRC
To help ensure the supplies reach the people who need them, Direct Relief is delivering the two large shipments to VillageReach, a global health non-profit working in the DRC and across Africa to transform health care delivery to reach everyone. VillageReach will coordinate the distribution with the National Public Health Institute of DRC’s Ministry of Public Health, to ensure these critical resources reach frontline health workers at the last mile – enabling them to safely continue providing care and helping to limit the spread of the virus.
VillageReach will train and mobilize 600 community health workers and facilitators for early case detection and contact tracing, strengthen diagnostics through secure transport of lab samples, maintain routine immunization services, and work with district and community leaders to reinforce local engagement and reduce the Ebola misinformation that leads some people to avoid treatment.
Direct Relief worked closely with VillageReach on the Covid-19 Action Fund for Africa, which delivered more than 121 million pieces of PPE across Africa between 2020 and 2022 – including 94 million face masks – to help protect community health workers from Covid-19 and enable them to continue their vital work.
“The arrival of this PPE is critical to protecting frontline health workers and stopping the spread of Ebola,” said VillageReach’s DRC Country Director Freddy Nkosi. “Working alongside the Ministry of Health, and with support from Direct Relief, VillageReach is helping ensure these supplies reach the last mile—so health workers can safely continue providing essential care to their communities.”
Maintaining Life-Sustaining Diabetes Care
Direct Relief is preparing shipments for two partners in eastern DRC that provide care to people with diabetes. This includes a shipment to Association des Diabetiques du Congo, or ADIC, to protect health staff at their Goma diabetes clinic and their network of healthcare providers in North Kivu and South Kivu, as well as a shipment to Kivu Diabetes Center to support healthcare staff at their clinic in Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province.
Since 2023, Direct Relief has provided $17.5 million in medical support to ADIC, including diabetes management supplies such as insulin, needles, test strips, and refrigerators for cold storage of temperature-sensitive medications. Since late 2025, Direct Relief has provided Kivu Diabetes Center with insulin, blood glucose monitors, and testing supplies, and three medical refrigerators for cold-chain storage.
On June 12, Direct Relief delivered an additional large shipment of diabetes medicine to Jericho Road’s Wellness Clinic in Goma. The shipment, valued at $4,721,310, contained more than 13,300 bottles of oral medications for managing type 2 diabetes and blood sugar.
South Sudan Aid
Direct Relief is arranging two shipments of PPE and essential medicine to the International Organization for Migration in South Sudan. While no Ebola cases have been confirmed in South Sudan, health authorities consider the country at high risk because of cross-border population movement with affected areas in DRC’s Ituri province.
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