By : Mohamed Shawky

As part of its endless efforts to support the healthcare system in Egypt since the outbreak of COVID-19, Orange Egypt has recently announced its contribution to maintain and repair medical ventilators as part of the “Breathe” campaign in cooperation with the Egyptian Cure Bank and under the supervision of the Ministry of Health. Orange’s support to the health sector comes in light of its commitment towards the Egyptian society and the state’s efforts in combating the COVID-19 Pandemic and throughout this initiative - that is under the slogan "Repairing a ventilator saves lives"-, Orange aims to support the health sector by providing financial aid to the Egyptian Cure Bank to maintain and repair medical ventilators, where the Egyptian Cure Bank will carry out the necessary maintenance and deliver the ventilators to the Ministry of Health for technical and health checkup before distributing them again to hospitals as needed.

This initiative has proven to be the quickest and the least expensive in providing ventilators for governmental hospitals whereas the maintenance of ventilators is much cheaper than importing new ones and thus saves time and cost. Earlier, the Egyptian Cure Bank, the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI) and the Egyptian Authority for the Unified Procurement of Medical Supply and Technology have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to provide financial support for the public health sector ventilators maintenance, which will add a large number of ventilators to the public health sector ready for use immediately.

The intuitive has already managed to repair dozens of ventilators within a week and the rest will be repaired within two weeks. Hala Abdel Wadood, Head of Public Relations & Corporate Social Responsibility at Orange Egypt, commented on this collaboration saying “This aid, provided by Orange Foundation, is part of the company’s social initiatives launched since the outbreak of the crisis.

She pointed out that Orange mainly seeks to assist the state in its battle against coronavirus through offering all possible means of support to the healthcare sector so that the intensive care units can continue treating critical cases efficiently”.

The Egyptian Food Bank and Regional Food Banking Network CEO - Dr. Moez El Shohdi revealed “When coronavirus outbroke, a shortage in ventilators increased.

We all know well that ventilators are vital to save critical cases, that is why we thought to repair ventilators in hospitals affiliated to the Ministry of Health and put them back to work again. On this occasion, I would like to thank Orange Egypt, our trusted and supporting partner in critical situations. Under this initiative, Orange provides the necessary financial support to help us repair a large number of ventilators”