Belarusian Red Cross, EPAM raise over Br400,000 to combat COVID-19

“A total of Br429.902 have been raised over less than two and a half weeks. It is a record-high amount of donations as part of one campaign in the history of the Belarusian Red Cross,” the society said.

The campaign aimed to raise money to purchase medical equipment and personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical and social workers, employees and volunteers of the Belarusian Red Cross. The first donation to the total tune of Br245,060 was made by EPAM, offering its employees to support the Belarusian Red Cross program to combat COVID-19. They transferred over Br92,400 more, and the IT company doubled this amount.

A part of the funds has already been spent to purchase an X-ray equipment for the Gomel Infectious Diseases Hospital, 20 contactless thermometers for 16 orphanages of Gomel Oblast and Grodno Oblast (Mozyr, Rogachev, Novogrudok, and others), as well as more than 35,000 high-protection respirators FFP2 and almost 6,300 medical protective overalls. They will also be distributed among regions. Some of them have already been sent to 26 healthcare facilities and 29 orphanages in Brest Oblast, Vitebsk Oblast, Gomel Oblast and Minsk Oblast. For example, Minsk city emergency medical station has received 6,000 respirators.

The Belarusian Red Cross plans to purchase reusable protective suits, the stability of which is 100 times higher than the disposable ones. PPE will be sent to healthcare facilities and orphanages.