Gift of the Givers (GoG), a non-governmental organisation, has made plans to bolster public healthcare services in South Africa by offering Covid-19 tests at a discounted rate. The founder of the organisation, Imtiaz Sooliman, said that his organisation is providing the public health service because the country’s health sector is facing a daunting task.

Sooliman said, ‘Providing affordable testing is an essential aspect of the management process. Gift of the Givers has set up a facility in Johannesburg for the purpose [of Covid-19 testing] at the discounted, subsidised rate of R750. Our second test site, in Roshnee, and the third site, at Ahmed Al-Kadi Hospital, in Durban, will be up and running later this week’.

He said that the aim of his organisation is to assist healthcare workers, who will be under severe strain during the pandemic, and hence his organisation will also donate protective wear, essential medical equipment and medical consumables to healthcare institutions in urgent need. Sooliman specifically mentioned the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, the Raheema Moosa Hospital and the Helen Joseph Hospital as some of the healthcare institutions his organisation is supporting. ‘They want these tents outside the existing hospital infrastructure to reduce risk to the other patients who may be immunocompromised. We have funded this already at R700 000 per month’, he said. The organisation also plans to drill boreholes at key sites like schools and hospitals.

Source: News24

Photo source: Governor Tom Wolf