Direct Relief has joined the fight against Covid-19 in South Africa

Direct Relief has joined the fight against Covid-19 in South Africa, throwing its financial and organizational support behind the Solidarity Fund, a South African public benefit initiative.

The Solidarity Fund was formed in March 2020 and is focused on reducing coronavirus transmission, including through communications driving behavioral change; health response, including obtaining personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline health workers; and humanitarian response, including food relief for people who have lost their means of sustenance.

Direct Relief is acting as the fiscal agent for the Solidarity Fund in the United States, enabling U.S. residents and corporations to easily make donations to the Fund. 100% of all donations made on the donation page will be delivered to the Solidarity Fund.

Direct Relief itself has donated $1 million to the Solidarity Fund, and has advised the Fund on purchases of large quantities of PPE from China.

“South Africa’s Solidarity Fund is exactly the type of unifying, pragmatic approach that makes sense in the face of a pandemic that threatens everyone,” said Direct Relief President and CEO Thomas Tighe, who also serves as Managing Director of Direct Relief South Africa, the organization’s South African affiliate, a Section 21 nonprofit. 

“Direct Relief is so pleased to participate in this important effort that is pulling people and organizations together to help address both the obvious direct threats to public health and the many related effects, particularly for those in already difficult circumstances.”

Within two months of its establishment, the Fund delivered food packages to about 300,000 vulnerable households. Each package was designed to provide a family with food essentials for two to four weeks. The Fund is now rolling out the second phase of the food relief program in the form of food vouchers, after determining it would be a more effective and efficient way to provide the assistance.

So far, the Solidarity Fund has distributed nearly 20 million units of PPE, including gloves, gowns, masks, sanitizers, boot covers and face shields to healthcare workers in public sector hospitals and clinics, as well as to community health workers. The Fund has also provided more than 1 million surgical masks to nine medical schools across the country to help fifth- and sixth-year medical students and those in allied health sciences resume clinical blocks and complete their studies.

To find out more about how you can support Direct Relief’s work in Africa head to https://www.directrelief.org/