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The fund was launched in March, just two weeks after the idea was first floated, with R 150 million in seed money from the government.
One of the ventilators delivered to the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital by the Solidarity Fund on August 24, 2020. Image: @ GautengHealth / Twitter
CAPE TOWN – The Solidarity Fund reported spending around R2.7 billion of the R3.2 billion it has raised so far to increase the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The fund was launched in March, just two weeks after the idea was first floated, with R 150 million in seed money from the government.
Powered by people working for free, the fund was designed as a rapid response vehicle to rapidly acquire personal protection and health equipment such as ventilators, to distribute food and other support to people in distress, and to achieve change in life. behavior when the pandemic hits.
The fund reported to Parliament’s Standing Finance Committee on Tuesday.
Its vice president, Adi Enthoven, has described the Solidarity Fund as a monumental and unprecedented endeavor.
“About R3.2 billion that we have raised – this is unprecedented in the timescales that we are talking about, to mobilize such a philanthropic effort, where we had more than 2,700 companies and foundations, including multinationals that donated. “
Enthoven said more than 300,000 people have also contributed.
“The two provinces with the highest number of individual donations are the Free State and the Northwest.
“We are talking about people who go to a Usave or a Shoprite and ask the cashier to make a contribution of R2, or R5 or R10 to the Solidarity Fund. So (there has been) an incredible show of support across the board in South Africa for this fund. “
The president of the fund, Gloria Serobe, said not a penny had been spent managing the fund: people work for him for free and he has extensive partnerships with companies and civil society organizations throughout the country and in the Foreign.
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