Old Mutual, the Coca-Cola company, National Aids Council and Red Cross Society have made Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) donations worth millions of dollars to Manicaland, Zimbabwe.
Development Diaries learnt that the PPEs were donated to the provincial quarantine centres, the Victoria Chitepo provincial hospital, Zororai Old People’s Home, Chengetai orphanage, Rukariro rehabilitation centre and Nzeve-Deaf centre to assist in the fight against Covid-19.
Accepting the donations, Minister of State for Manicaland and the Provincial Covid-19 Taskforce chairperson, Dr Ellen Gwaradzimba, applauded the organisation for the kind gesture, stating that the equipment would go a long way in the fight against the virus.
She added that 45 people had tested positive to the virus in Manicaland and there was a need to minimise local transmissions as much as possible.
Old Mutual, it was gathered, made a donation of PPE to the provincial hospital and also registered 8,000 health workers for free life insurance in the event of death due to Covid-19.
The Provincial Manager at National Aids Council, Evos Makoni, said, ‘Covid-19 had the potential to reverse the gains recorded in the response to HIV and overall socio-economic development. Our participation was also predicated on the fears that people living with HIV would be affected more by Covid-19 given their already compromised immunity. To mitigate these fears, we deployed our systems and structures to play a pivotal role in the response to Covid-19’.
The Zimbabwe Red Cross society, it was learnt, also presented 600 blankets for quarantine facilities in the province, liquid soap, hand sanitisers and face masks for Zororai old people’s home, Chengetai orphanage, Rukariro rehabilitation centre and Nzeve-Deaf centre.
‘Our old people are more vulnerable to the [Covid-19] because of their old age and other underlying conditions they may have so…we work with Coca-cola foundation focusing on those vulnerable groups’, the Provincial Manager at Zimbabwe Red Cross, Golden Mukwecheni, said.
Source: The Herald
Photo source: The National Guard
