Chiefs LB Tamba Hali Joins Fight Against Ebola

Sep 29, 2014; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs outside linebacker Tamba Hali (91) celebrates after the Chiefs recovered a fumble during the second half against the New England Patriots at Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs won 41-14. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 29, 2014; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs outside linebacker Tamba Hali (91) celebrates after the Chiefs recovered a fumble during the second half against the New England Patriots at Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs won 41-14. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Ebola outbreak affects Chiefs LB Tambi Hali as well, but in a way most of us can’t understand

Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Tamba Hali made a $50,000 donation to Heart to Heart International to help build a 70 bed treatment center for Ebola patients in Liberia. The unit will cost between $100-150,000 to build, and an estimated $1 million per month to operate. This crisis is affecting Hali more than it does the rest of us.

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Tamba Hali was born in Liberia in 1983. He still has several relatives living in the country where Ebola has killed nearly 5,000 people already. It is only expected to get worse.

So Hali decided to try to take action. When asked about his donation, he replied “We can’t really wait on this. I’d be the first one to tell you that every time I do charity work, I like to do it on the hush-hush and help people quietly. But there are some matters -like this- that are way bigger than me. All I can do is lend my help in ways I know I can.”

Heart to Heart is a Kansas City-based humanitarian organization that will use his donation to build a treatment center, though that term is misleading. Most of the patients who enter one of these centers will never see the outside world again. These are mostly quarantine tents that will save countless lives, just not the lives of the people who enter them.

Six of these treatment centers are currently operating in Liberia, with 21 more planned. Will it stop the spread of Ebola in Liberia and surrounding countries? No one knows for sure, but the World Health Organization estimates that within the next six weeks that there will be 5,000 new Ebola cases per week. There are only 8,914 reported cases right now. That is a huge increase, but Hali and others such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg are trying to make a difference with monetary donations.

Hopefully, NFL players will continue to join the cause.

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