Jennifer Lawrence Joins Her Hunger Games Co-Stars To Support This Worthwhile Cause

[RoadWarrior]

For most Americans, the wave of fear of the Ebola virus that swept the nation has largely calmed. However, for countries like Guinea and Sierra Leone, Ebola is still an ever-present threat. To help fight against this devastating virus, and to give aid to the countries hit hardest by it, Jennifer Lawrence and several of her Hunger Games cast members, like Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson, starred in a PSA for the Ebola Survival Fund. You can check out the PSA below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YwHbnUtagiM

The PSA was produced by Jeffrey Wright, who played Beetee in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Mockingjay Part I. After seeing the crazy news hype over the Ebola virus in America, Wright was pretty disturbed at the ignorance of the virus and how vastly different American medicine is compared to a country like Liberia. Wright percieved a privileged position held by America as a nation in the fight against Ebola, and he decided to use that privilege to make a difference.

As Jeffrey Wright said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the inspiration for his PSA came largely from his work on The Hunger Games films. Said the actor,

"The

Hunger Games

allegory aligns with this Ebola outbreak in that we, the United States, the West, relative to this, is very much like the Capitol and Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, are very much like the outer districts. I thought, well, let’s play with that idea as a way of highlighting the stark contrast between we, the Capitol, and they, the outer districts, and using some of the constructs from the movie as a way of shining additional light on some of the contrasts.

Wright makes a compelling point, comparing the United States to the Capitol in The Hunger Games. Though no one really wants to be compared to the flashy, ignorant, blissfully unaware citizens of the Capitol, it is hard not to see that stark difference Wright mentions, especially when PSA throw some pretty startling numbers out there. Out of the 19,648 confirmed cases of Ebola in the world, only 8 of those were American patients treated in US hospitals, and patients in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone have a survival rate of just 20%.

With all of the hype coming from the cases of Ebola here in the United States from Ebola zombie movies to television shows, it is quite refreshing to see stars like Jeffrey Wright, Jennifer Lawrence, and the rest of the Mockingjay cast use their position in the entertainment industry to do some real good in the fight against this virus. Ebola is a scary disease regardless of where you live, but if Wright’s PSA can teach us anything, it's that we can help everyone across the globe create more survivors of Ebola. If you are interested in helping out, and equipping those countries hardest hit by the virus with the tools they need to beat the virus, you can donate on the Ebola Survival Fund website.