UBC president Arvind Gupta urges alumni to embrace Band Aid Challenge to fight Ebola virus

    1 of 4 2 of 4

      The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that the death count from the Ebola virus has reached 6,900 in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.

      It's a catastrophic situation causing havoc on the economic, social, and cultural lives of West Africans.

      British Columbians can take pride in the efforts of UBC researchers and physicians to counter this growing scourge.

      Dr. Srinivas Murthy, a physician and an MSc candidate in the School of Population and Public Health, was in Liberia working as the World Health Organization's national lead for case management.

      A clinical professor in the same school, Dr. Michael Rekart, and adjunct professor Paul Gully have also stepped forward to help Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. Rekart is doing his work with the charitable organization Doctors Without Borders.

      In addition, the UBC School of Population and Public Health has helped the World Health Organization develop high-level strategies to respond to the virus.

      And now, the president of UBC, Arvind Gupta, has added his voice by calling on former students to join the Band Aid Challenge. It was created earlier this month by humanitarian and musician Bob Geldof to raise funds to battle Ebola.

      Bob Geldof launched the Band Aid Challenge earlier this month.

      As part of the challenge, Geldof, a former Georgia Straight music editor, is urging people to donate 10 British pounds (approximately CDN$18) to the Band Aid Charitable Trust to help Ebola patients in West Africa.

      Here's the catch: participants must sing one of Bono's lines from "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and record it on video.

      Bono's line that Geldof wants repeated is: "Tonight, we're reaching out and touching you." 

      Being a good sport, Gupta took up my challenge, which you can see below.

      Arvind Gupta exercises his vocal chords for a good cause.

      More importantly, he has asked a large number of people to join him: the presidents of student groups at the Vancouver and Okanagan campuses, Tanner Bokor and Rocky Kim, as well as approximately 300,000 UBC alumni around the world.

      Yes folks, they are being called upon to sing the line on video, go to the Bandaid30 website, and make a small donation to battle Ebola.

      That gives each of them the right to nominate three other people to do the same.

      I'm looking forward to some of them stepping forward and issuing challenges to SFU president Andrew Petter, UVic president Jamie Cassels, University of Northern British Columbia president Daniel Weeks, Royal Roads University president Allan Cahoon, Kwantlen Polytechnic University president Alan Davis, University of Fraser Valley president Mark Evered, Vancouver Island University president Ralph Nilson, Thompson Rivers University president Alan Shaver, Langara College president Lane Trotter, Douglas College interim president Kathy Denton, BCIT president Kathy Kinloch, Vancouver Film School president James Griffin, and Justice Institute of B.C. president Michael Tarko.

      Imagine if the power of all of those postsecondary institutions' alumni were also marshalled against Ebola. Together, we could beat back this virus.

      You can hear Bono belt out his famous line at 1:51 of this video.

      Comments