Alibaba Foundation and Jack Ma Foundation to donate Medical Supplies to Africa to help fight Covid-19 health emergency.
Johannesburg, South Africa (17 March 2020) – As the COVID-19 virus continues to spread around the world, including to countries in Africa, the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation have announced donations, including: 20,000 testing kits, 100,000 masks and 1,000 protective suits each, to every one of the 54 African nations.
In total, 1.1 million testing kits, 6 million masks and 60,000 protective suits will be delivered to Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali of Ethiopia will take the lead in managing the logistics and onward distribution of the supplies across the African countries.
This donation to African nations is the latest in a series of initiatives from the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation to support areas of the world most affected by the current pandemic, recipient countries include, among others: Japan, South Korea, United States, Italy, Spain and Belgium.
In addition to the donations, the Foundations also announced plans to work with medical institutions in Africa to provide online training material for COVID-19 clinical treatment.
In a Twitter post about the donations, Jack Ma, founder of global technology company Alibaba Group, thanked the Ethiopian government and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali.
Collaboration and partnership with local governments and stakeholders in the framework of the Alibaba-led Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) are crucial in this relief effort. As the first country to join the eWTP, the support of Rwanda Development Board and the close cooperation with Rwanda Biomedical Center are also playing a vital role to enable a rapid response and delivery of donated medical supplies. Since 2018, Alibaba Group and the Government of Rwanda have worked closely together on a number of initiatives and projects designed to support more inclusive global trade as part of the first eWTP hub in Africa. Ethiopia is the second African country to join the eWTP in 2019, aiming to serve as a gateway for Ethiopian products to China and new markets, as well as offer support in smart logistics and fulfilment, and talent training.
To find out more, please visit @jackma and @foundation_ma on Twitter.
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