DIASPORA SUPPORT FOR COVID-19 IN NIGERIA

RELIEF EFFORT


The Nigerian American Business Forum (NABF) , The Nigerian Pharmacists Association of Tampa Bay (NPATB),  and
Nigerians in Diaspora Commission  (NIDCOM)  

 c/o NIDCOM, Federal Secretariat Complex, Phase 1, Annex 1,

Abuja, FCT, Nigeria

The aim of this campaign is to solicit your support to ensure that the Nigerian diaspora are not sitting on the fence in this unprecedented time in world’s history. Country after country are being battered daily even in the developed world and the medical teams are bearing the brunt of this pandemic.

The funds we are soliciting are intended to be used for the following:

a) Procurement of masks, protective gears and other medical supplies for frontline staff (Medics and Paramedics). These items are dwindling and getting more and more difficult to purchase; even in the developed countries, public health experts are now balancing the need to keep health care workers on the front lines against the need to protect medical staff from becoming patients themselves.

b) We also intend to purchase the life support machines for respiratory conditions called ventilators. As of 2017 in a rough estimate, there were less than 70 of such ventilators in Lagos State, both in the public and private sectors.

c) Testing 200 million inhabitants is a herculean task, however, the World Health Organization Chief recently sent out a message that “all countries must test, test, test,” calling the pandemic “the defining global health crisis of our time”, unfortunately, these testing kits are not readily available, and are very scarce. Therefore through the donations, we plan to arrange testing for 5,000 to 10,000 high risk individuals of all ages including.

Please note that these supports will need to be initiated as soon as possible to protect our frontline medical staff back home from becoming corona virus patients themselves. Only last week, the World Health Organization Chief pointed out that "chronic global shortage" of protective equipment was one of the "most urgent threats" to the ability to save lives.

As a responsive and responsible community, we are taking this action to strengthen our collective national resolve in combating this pandemic and its dreadful impact, as we strongly believe that diaspora community can come together and throw its weight behind this initiative. With thirty-six African countries currently with recorded cases, we can no longer continue to sit on the fence as we have parents, brothers and sisters back home. We need to come together work with the government and well-meaning Nigerians to halt the spread and to contain the pandemic which has already claimed some lives in Africa. This is a humongous task that cannot be left for the government alone to shoulder.

Once your donations are received, the Diaspora Team will source for the materials working in close collaboration with NIDCOM to identify the most reliable supplier and the cost-effective logistics arrangements.

The distribution of these materials and identification of those people to be tested will cut across the most affected States of the Federation, and this will be done through the assistance of NIDCOM, the apex Government agency for the coordination of diaspora activities. Distributing through NIDCOM will eliminate logistic challenges, bureaucratic bottlenecks and will provide ease of access to States Government.