Jack Ma donates second batch of medical supplies to Africa
The co-founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba Group Jack Ma has made a second huge donation to African countries towards the fight against the spread of coronavirus.
April 06, 2020: The co-founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba Group Jack Ma has made a second huge donation to African countries towards the fight against the spread of coronavirus.
Ma revealed on Twitter, “Our second donation to 54 countries in Africa is on the way. That includes 500 ventilators, 200K suits & face shields, 2K thermometers, 1M swabs & extraction kits and 500K gloves.”
Last month, Ma made the first donation in association with Ethiopian Airlines which included 1.1 million testing kits, 6 million masks and 60,000 medical use protective suits and face shields.
The goods were delivered through Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, which then took the lead in managing the logistics and distribution to the rest of Africa.
The Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation jointly established the Global MediXchange for Combating Covid-19 (GMCC) programme, with the support of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence and Alibaba Health, to help combat the global outbreak of the novel coronavirus. This programme was established to facilitate online communication and collaboration across borders, as well as provide frontline medical teams around the world with the necessary communication channels to share practical experience about fighting the pandemic. This center offers overseas Chinese compatriots with Covid-19 prevention and treatment consultation from frontline doctors and supports medical scientific research institutions with AI, big data, and cloud computing capabilities.
GMCC is composed of four centres: Resources Sharing Center, which shares authoritative anti-epidemic information; International Medical Expert Communication Center, which is dedicated for medical staffs to exchange real-time clinical experience of the latest epidemic prevention and control; Covid-19 Chinese Consultation Center, which provides overseas Chinese compatriots with real-time health consultation and online Q&A; and fighting Covid-19 Technology Center, which shows cutting-edge anti-epidemic technologies.