Kansas City area medical team heading to Africa

The Kansas City-area medical relief nonprofit Heart to Heart International is sending a team to West Africa to assess how its volunteers could help with the Ebola crisis.

The Kansas City Star reports the four medical professionals plan to leave Sunday for a weeklong fact-finding trip in Liberia.

Heart to Heart, based in Olathe (oh-LAY’-thuh), provides medical assistance worldwide following earthquakes, hurricanes and other disasters. Operations director Dan Neal the West African mission is different because the Ebola epidemic is ongoing.

Once the assessment group returns, the plan is to send a series of medical teams over at least the next six months for two-week stints each. The teams would be comprised of about 10 people each.