Staff Writer
The First Rand Namibia HOPE fund handed over 25 ICU patient monitors worth N$2.4 million to the Ministry of Health and Social Services last week as part of efforts to assist medical staff to respond better and quicker to the medical needs and treatment of their patients.
Minister of Health and Social Services Kalumbi Shangula expressed his sincere appreciation towards FNB who made the generous contribution through the FirstRand H.O.P.E. fund.
“I appreciate FNB’s commitment to meet government halfway to ensure the speedy recovery of COVID-19 patients.”
Bronwen Chase, FirstRand H.O.P.E. Fund Team Leader said that the Group has been at the forefront of supporting various initiatives and tackling challenges together with partners such as the Government and in particular the Ministry of Health.
“We have mentioned in the past, that FirstRand Namibia cannot solve all the challenges the country is facing. We, however, feel that financial institutions must seek to play an active role in driving sustainable and inclusive economic activities and assist society to address its biggest challenges – of which the impact of the Corona virus on Namibia, it’s economy and its people is a definite one in 2020. It is thus with great pleasure that we hand over the ICU patient monitors to relive the burden on our hospitals and clinics and our frontline healthcare workers, who have been under tremendous physical and emotional stress during the pandemic.”
FirstRand Namibia established HOPE – a Health Optimisation Pandemic Emergency Fund in April this year, thereby leveraging the group’s capacity and capabilities to assist with Namibia’s response to COVID19 .
HOPE’s objective is to accelerate the scaling of Namibia’s COVID-19 critical care capacity over the next few weeks and is particularly focused on supporting the medical structures and resources of the country, particularly those responsible for providing testing and front-line protective care, as well as providing more ventilators and addressing critical bed capacity.
