Tag Archives: Damien Queally

A call has gone out for people to consider organising a GOAL Mile in their area this Christmas, as part of the aid agency’s bid to draw attention to some of the many humanitarian crises that they are responding to across the developing world. GOAL is currently responding to the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, where they will soon be managing a treatment centre for Ebola patients in the west of the country. They also have extensive programmes in South Sudan and Syria, where millions of people continue to suffer from conflict and food shortages. Inagh man, Damien Queally of Plan Ireland is one key figures in coordinating operations to deal with the Ebola crisis in West Africa, which should provide an even greater incentive for people in Clare to support the local GOAL Mile. GOAL’s CEO, Barry Andrews is asking the people of the county to try top last year’s number  of events over the Christmas and New Year period. …

COMPANIES in Clare should “step up and provide corporate support” to West Africa, as it fights to contain the outbreak of Ebola, an Inagh man leading one NGO’s response to the disease in the region has said. Damien Queally of Plan Ireland has just returned to his base in Senegal from a visit to the charity’s projects in the three worst-affected countries. “We are looking for medical personnel, good solid project managers who are able to keep multiple activities moving at the same time, logisticians. It would be great if some companies would step up and provide corporate support with some of the supplies that are needed. Personal protective equipment for one person is about €50, a water hygiene kit is about €25,” he said. “After visiting the three countries, while I was a bit apprehensive going in, once I saw the hand-washing checks everywhere, the temperature checks everywhere…there is a lot more in place, my fear went. Having gone …

AS the deadly Ebola virus continues to spread in West Africa, Inagh’s Damien Queally is co-ordinating NGO Plan Ireland’s response to the disease. In his time with the organisation, he has worked in Uganda, Congo, Darfur, Haiti and Niger. For the past year and a half, Damien has lived in Dakar, capital of Senegal and his main work has been in the area of education and health. He expects to be there for another 18 months. Damien is now deputy head of programmes for Plan Ireland in West Africa. Plan, he explains, “focuses on children and youth, looking at what are the rights of children and young people” but as the Ebola virus claims its 1,145th victim, his work has shifted sharply in that direction. “We work with children, their communities, local agencies, government and parents, around seeing how can we help them help their children get access to education, to ensure they are getting vaccinated, to ensure they have …

A Clare man has called for better tracing of victims of Ebola, in order to stop the spread of the disease. Damien Queally, from Inagh, is Deputy Head of Programmes with Plan Ireland in West Africa. He is currently based in Senegal and is co-ordinating Plan Ireland’s response to the virus in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. He was in Guinea back in March when the disease was first detected. In the past week, the death toll from Ebola topped 1,000 and the World Health Organisation declared an international health emergency. However, Mr Queally believes the reaction to Ebola has been too slow. He wants to see concrete action being taken and greater support provided to countries where cases have been confirmed. “It is only hitting the media now but governments should have done much more, the WHO should have done much more and if they had, we wouldn’t be in this situation,” he said. Mr Queally believes tighter border …