Teams help healthcare heroes

With the COVID-19 pandemic affecting societies around the world, local Sobi companies have been helping organisations and healthcare providers in their communities.

As well as fulfilling their mission of getting treatments to the people who need them, local teams have also been making donations and lending a helping hand. We touch down to look at some of the great initiatives going on.

France
On 17 March, the first day of the containment measures in France, the team at Sobi France made a practical and nutritious contribution to the surge of solidarity throughout the country by temporarily transferring their weekly subscription of a 12 kg fruit basket delivery from our headquarter in la Défense to a health facility.

Pictured are some of the frontline nursing staff from Centre Hospitalier de Versailles receiving their delivery. 

Greece
In Greece, the Ministry of Health appealed for help to purchase ICU ventilators and other essential supplies.

The Hellenic Association of Pharmaceutical Companies (SfEE) has contacted its members in order to communicate the appeal but also to organise a coordinated initiative through certified suppliers. Sobi Greece has supported the initiative with €5.000 for the purchase of consumable protective medical supplies, such as masks, coveralls, goggles and boot covers for the healthcare professionals.

Spain and Portugal

Sobi Portugal has donated 5,000 masks to Santa María Hospital, in Lisbon, Portugal.

In another initiative, Sobi Iberia has launched a virtual gym project for employees, who can earn points that will be converted into money donated to support efforts to combat COVID-19.

North America
Sobi North America, as part of their long-established “giving back” initiative, is supporting #HealthCareHeroes in some of the hardest hit communities in honour of National Superhero Day on 28 April.

As part of this, they have donated to non-profit organisations including Off Their Plate, Feed The Frontlines, Give InKind and Big Sunday, who are making sure frontline healthcare workers get access to the meals they need to keep on fighting.

• Off Their Plate in Boston provides meals to frontline COVID-19 healthcare workers at hospitals including Mass General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s, Faulkner, Beth Israel Deaconess and Boston Medical Center, while also helping local restaurants.
• Feed the Frontlines in New York City helps fuel the extraordinary efforts of NYC healthcare workers and support local restaurants and their employees.
• GiveInKind in Chicago provides meals and snacks for the ER, ICU and greater hospital staff at various Chicago Area hospitals.
• Big Sunday in Los Angeles organises free meal deliveries for staffers who work the nightshift in the emergency room of Cedars-Sinai, St. John's, LAC+USC, White Memorial, and MLK hospitals.

Russia
A donation from Sobi Russia is helping two hospitals procure personal protective equipment essential in the effort against COVID-19. Sobi Russia has organised a donation for the procurement and delivery of personal protective equipment to St. George City Hospital, St. Petersburg, and Baranov Republican Hospital, Petrozavodsk, Karelia.