Diaspora Trust Fund Donates $1m Worth of Protective Gear

May 9 , 2020

The Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund (EDTF) has procured eight types of personal protective equipment (PPE) worth 1.2 million dollars to be used to safeguard the well-being of frontline health personnel working to save lives amidst the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The procurement was made in the middle of last week after the EDTF signed an agreement with the Ministry of Health. The procured items include face shields, thermometers, gloves, face and respirator masks and protective clothing, among others. The EDTF Emergency COVID-19 Mitigation subaccount was opened on April 4, 2020, with one million dollars in seed money. Then EDTF formed an Implementation Committee (IC) to liaise with the Ministry of Finance about the items and supplies needed to combat the pandemic and undertake the required steps to secure the supplies. The Committee procured the items from SNS Global Pharma Corporation. "We allocated one million dollars in initial start-up funding from the EDTF's ongoing fund and mobilised an additional 130,000 dollars to date under a new subaccount," said Alemayehu G. Mariam (PhD), chairperson of the ETDF.