President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has promised to
assist Liberia and Sierra Leone in their fight against the scourge of
Ebola virus ravaging the West African countries.
Dangote, according to BBC News report, called Presidents of the two
countries and assured them of the determination of Dangote foundation to
assist their countries.
'I spoke to the two Presidents today. First to the President of
Sierra-Leone and Liberia, sympathising with them on what has actually
been going on in their countries and also to inform them that that they
didn't hear from me all these while because I didn't want to call them
without any form of support. .. In fact, what the two presidents told me
they needed the most are well trained people who know exactly how to
handle Ebola and luckily for us, we have 590
volunteers in the country who are well trained and ready to go to these
countries as volunteers to assist them in training.'
Dangote said, though Nigeria has been certified free of Ebola, the
country will not rest on its oars until the virus is permanently
contained in the region. 'I think we have escaped the worst but we have
to be very vigilant so that we don't become complacent, we are not going
to really relax about it until our sister countries, Sierra Leone and
Liberia are totally free of Ebola', he stressed.
Besides assisting the government financially, he said Dangote
Foundation also bought 12 infrared machines to be fixed at all the
airports aside other efforts in winning the war against Ebola.
He urged other wealthy Africans to be part of the struggle to free the region of Ebola.
Dangote said: 'Everybody should put hands on deck because we should not
fold our arms and wait for the western world to come and take us out of
our problems. We have been saying that we don't want them to be giving
us handouts… if we are busy making money here, when there are issues,
we shouldn't run away from the issues, we should try to take part of our
profits and ensure that we resolve the issues.'
Meanwhile, a statement issued by Liberia's' Executive Mansion, revealed
that Dangote Foundation, would work closely with the Liberian
Government to determine what assistance can be provided ranging from
medical personnel other professional healthcare workers. The statement
revealed that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf thanked the billionaire
for his promised assistance and praised him for reaching out to the
government and people of Liberia.
Liberia is among the countries worst hit by Ebola virus, along with
Sierra Leone and Guinea. The country accounts for more than half of all
the official Ebola deaths, estimated at more than 2,400.
Dangote Foundation and Wellcome Trust recently entered into a £40m
investment in African research partnership with the Dangote Foundation,
an African-based international philanthropic organisation, for Ebola
research.
Dangote said: 'We are pleased to partner with a leading research
organisation like the Wellcome Trust in tackling the deadly Ebola virus.
The current Ebola crisis underlines the importance for institutions
like ours to get involved in supporting medical research.'
The emergency Ebola initiative, which includes contributions from
partner funders, will support research that can swiftly begin to
investigate new approaches to treating, preventing and containing the
disease, during the current epidemic in West Africa. It will also
support research into the ethical challenges of testing experimental
medicines during epidemics.
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