Yonkers Group Collects Donations To Help Ebola Patients Overseas

YONKERS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- In the face of the Ebola threat there are people in the Tri-State area doing whatever they can to help victims overseas.

As TV 10/55's Steve Langford reported, more than 4,000 miles away from West Africa, but less than 20 from Bellevue Hospital, a warehouse in Yonkers is jam-packed with volunteers.

"We have almost 250 pallets of donated inventory. We're going to be getting in the air to Sierra Leone in the next 10 days," said Danielle Butin, executive director of AFYA.

AFYA, a Yonkers humanitarian organization named after the Swahili word for health, has been given a list of urgently requested items directly from the government of Sierra Leone, Langford reported.

Medical supplies donated, sorted and packed will be rushed straight to the heart of the Ebola crisis in West Africa.

"If you can give something or do something that might be able to help somebody even if they're not in my country it'll maybe help us all out a little bit," said volunteer Keith Young.

Two-hundred volunteers of all ages gave part of their Sunday for a cause that has gone global, Langford reported.

"I think now the reality is pretty obvious that this disease does not have any borders and we need to take as many precautions as we can," said Cynthia Odell, with the AFYA Advisory Council. "But the biggest thing we can do right now is prevention."

AFYA has been receiving most of its donations from corporations and hospital groups.

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