SA's big heart during Covid-19: Donations from R2 to R1m help feed 250,000 people

21-million face masks on order with financing from Solidarity Fund

23 April 2020 - 15:23 By Ernest Mabuza
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now
The Solidarity Fund, which is chaired by Gloria Serobe, says R2.6bn has so far been pledged to the fund, of which R1.1bn has been allocated to health needs.
The Solidarity Fund, which is chaired by Gloria Serobe, says R2.6bn has so far been pledged to the fund, of which R1.1bn has been allocated to health needs.
Image: Werner Hills

Since the Solidarity Fund was launched just four weeks ago, it has approved R1.1bn in funding for health-care provision which will be needed to fight Covid-19 and has assisted 250,000 distressed families with food aid.

These details emerged during a media briefing by the Solidarity Fund on Thursday.

Gloria Serobe, chairperson of the board, said so far R2.6bn has been pledged to the fund.

Paul Bondi, the fund's head of fundraising, said the fund started with seed capital of R150m from government and that R1.6bn of the pledged funds had already been received in the fund's account.

He said the fund was particularly grateful to the 75,000 individuals who had made donations to the fund, ranging from as little as R2 to over R1m.

“Every pledge is valuable to us and is highly appreciated. It is also inspiring to see individuals pledging a portion of their salaries to the fund,” Bondi said.

Bondi said the fund was not administering all donations made by some foundations and high-profile individuals. He said those individuals administered them on their own.

Jonathan Broomberg, the fund's lead on health, said it has become clear from the global experience that if coronavirus was allowed to spread unchecked in SA, it had a potential to result in catastrophic human, social and economic costs.

“Our foremost priority as a society ... is to intensify the health interventions that are needed to contain and delay the spread of the virus and allow time for our health systems to prepare and to save lives.

“The Solidarity Fund's focus in this context has been to support the government and broaden national efforts to prepare our public and private health-care systems for the increased burden that will result from the pandemic and to ensure that the critical equipment and emergency supplies that are required are available in the country when they are needed,” Broomberg said.

Broomberg said the fund has approved R1.1bn in funding for the health-care sector to procure equipment to be distributed to hospitals.

These include personal protective equipment (PPE) for front-line health-care workers and other pararphenalia such as testing kits and ventilators.

Broomberg said there had been a shortage of PPEs — which are mainly manufactured in China — for health workers.

“The fund was able to step in and work quickly to bring these supplies,” Broomberg said.

Broomberg said orders to the value of R420m had been placed, including an order for 21-million masks.

Nicola Galombik, the fund's lead on humanitarian efforts, said the fund had started delivering food to 250,000 distressed households in SA. The fund has made R120m available for food relief.

“Our goal is to act rapidly, at scale and to achieve national coverage,” Galombik said.

.

In the past month, Serobe said, the fund has been registered as a public benefit organisation, and 75 individuals had been deployed to help the fund in its tasks on a voluntary basis.

Serobe said the fund has also appointed an independent board of 12 members and has an interim CEO Nomkhitha Nqweni to drive the fund's activities.


subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now