Coronavirus Donations: The family of Equity Group Holdings managing director and chief executive officer Dr. James Mwangi has committed to donate Sh. 300 million to support COVID-19 Response in Kenya.
This commitment is part of a Sh. 1.1 billion that has been donated by Equity Bank Group and the MasterCard Foundation to provide Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to front line medical staff dealing with COVID-19 patients in public hospitals in Kenya.
Equity Bank has committed Sh 300 million while Mastercard Foundation has committed Sh. 500 million.
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Speaking while announcing the initiative, Dr. Mwangi said, “It started when my attention was drawn to a group of students and doctors who were raising funds for PPE’s for young post graduate students especially in Kenyatta National and Referral Hospital (KNH).” He added, “When I shared the need with my family, a robust discussion revealed the urgency to holistically address the issue as it was not prudent to provide the PPE’s to students without also focusing on the plight of the doctors, nurses, clinical officers, and medical staff.” Dr. Mwangi is a member of Kenya’s COVID-19 Emergency Fund Board.
“We invited the CEO of the Kenya Medical Association and a group of doctors from KNH and University of Nairobi where we established the need for PPE’s for medical staff handling COVID-19 patients in the country. A team of seven was formed to help structure this initiative,” Dr. Mwangi said.
Dr. Mwangi appealed to Kenyans to observe the following recommendations from the Ministry of Health on social distancing, washing hands and sanitizing regularly, limitation of movement, self-quarantining when in doubt, and wearing face masks when in public. “By observing these recommendations, we shall collectively as a community and society become the first line of defense to avoid paying the price of an exponential community spread of the pandemic. We owe ourselves a duty of ensuring that we don’t add to the growing list of infected or contacts. Let us leave our medical staff and our health infrastructure to be our second line of defense for those who unfortunately become infected,” Dr. Mwangi said.
Dr. Mwangi concluded by saying, “We recognize that none of us can be safe as long as one of us is unsafe. We will endeavor to continue with our engagement and mobilization of our partners to extend our partnership towards procurement of diagnostic kits. We believe that there is a chance for every Kenyan to get the support they require to overcome the COVID-19 infection.”
On the Mastercard coronavirus donations, President and CEO of the Mastercard Foundation Reeta Roy said, “Health care workers are at the frontlines of caring for all of us, safeguarding community health. We must keep them safe. We are grateful that this partnership meets the immediate needs precipitated by COVID-19, which the Foundation is prioritizing through our Mastercard Foundation COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Program.”