The Healthcare Workers’ Foundation (HWF), the charity started by and for healthcare workers in the midst of the pandemic, has partnered with global environmental organisation Parley for the Oceans (Parley), for the second time to support healthcare workers in the Maldives.

The two organisations have joined forces again to donate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) – including recycled visors, hospital gowns, masks and goggles – to hospitals based in the Maldives, providing enough equipment to support all of the hospitals and covid facilities across the entire country.

To coincide with this initiative, the charity has also donated 23,500 pieces of PPE to hospitals in Sierra Leone in addition to a further 40,718 visors and goggles to the Africa Healing Foundation.

Healthcare workers in both countries have been under enormous pressure since the pandemic hit their shores in March 2020. In the Maldives, many frontline staff have not only been overstretched on the frontlines, but, due to the remote location of the island nation, they’ve also had to manage moving covid patients to assigned covid facilities. 

Sierra Leone, a nation significantly impacted by the Ebola epidemic as recently as 2017, has seen many healthcare workers working in overstretched hospitals for years, with the pandemic intensifying the impact on the already-fragile healthcare system.

Ibrahim Saleem, Chief Executive Officer, Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital Maldives said: 

”We are extremely grateful for the support that HWF and Parley have provided to the Maldives. The donation of this PPE equipment has come at a time so crucial to our frontline staff, who are exhausted having fought the pandemic for nearly two years now. We have so much peace of mind knowing that we have a fresh stockpile of PPE inventory to ensure they are protected while supporting our communities in the covid facilities.”

Commenting on the two global initiatives, Julie Child, CEO of HWF, said: 

“We are delighted to be partnering with Parley for the second time for an initiative so important to the healthcare workers of the Maldives, as well as Dr Samuel Sessay for our Sierra Leone project. While we are committed to supporting frontline staff in the UK, it’s so important that when we have an opportunity to do so, we reach out to overseas organisations and help their healthcare workers who face an array of unique challenges in addition to dealing with the impact of Covid-19.”