NORTHBROOK, Ill., Sept. 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Astellas Global Health Foundation ("Foundation") announced today it will provide $2 million in emergency relief focused on improved healthcare infrastructure, COVID-19 training and education impacting more than 725,000 lives in Kenya, Dominican Republic, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ghana, Ethiopia and Nigeria. The funding addresses the urgent needs of partners seeking to prevent the immediate spread and combat the long-term effects of COVID-19 in particularly vulnerable and hard-to-reach communities. 

Four grants will provide resources to impact nearly 300,000 lives including:

• CARE: Support efforts in South Sudan and Ethiopia for community education to combat misinformation about COVID-19; strengthen healthcare infrastructure through preparedness, surveillance and response; empower, train and educate local women leaders, including community health workers; and increase water, sanitation and hygiene support.
• International Medical Corps: Help to reduce morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19 and communicable diseases in a Northeast Nigeria primary health center by applying preventive measures and enhancing preparedness to rapidly identify, isolate and refer suspected cases within the community; integrate infection control; and increase water, sanitation and hygiene support.
• The Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning (JOICFP): Fund the "Enhanced Community Capacity to Protect the Lives of Women and Girls in the Face of Public Health Crises" program in Ghana to provide accurate information about COVID-19 prevention and improve access to quality sexual and reproductive health.
• World Vision: Reach the most vulnerable families and children during the COVID-19 pandemic in the DRC by training community leaders to champion basic infection, prevention and control and establishing and maintaining community level water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure where health issues, widespread conflict and Ebola outbreaks have converged with urgent humanitarian needs.

"The Astellas Global Health Foundation's funding of our work will help us to address the escalating needs of communities without systems in place to prevent, detect and support already vulnerable populations most severely affected by COVID-19," said Sheba Crocker, vice president for Humanitarian Policy and Practice, CARE. "We will be able to scale up our response more quickly and efficiently to help provide much needed relief for more than 170,000 people in South Sudan and Ethiopia, countries already grappling with dire humanitarian needs in the midst of the pandemic."

Of the $2 million in COVID-19 relief funds, the Astellas Global Health Foundation reallocated $525,000 of previously awarded funding to partners for emergency support of strengthening COVID-19 services in other underserved communities impacting nearly 500,000 lives:

• Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH), under the direction of the Indiana University Center for Global Health: Support mental healthcare efforts to benefit COVID-19 patients, healthcare workers and the broader community in Kenya, including virtual care and the accelerated construction of a group home to serve additional urgent community needs.
• United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF USA): Help provide personal protective equipment (PPE) and COVID-19 education for pregnant and breastfeeding women and families in the Dominican Republic, and expanding the impact of the Mothers and Babies in Good Care program that the Foundation funded in 2019.

"The Foundation is actively pursuing support for vulnerable communities where the resources are in great need to prevent the further spread of the COVID-19 virus," said Moyra Knight, president of the Astellas Global Health Foundation. "These contributions will provide critical capacity and services for underserved communities with extremely limited resources to support their efforts around protection, detection and education in the fight against the global pandemic."

Since its formation in 2018, the Astellas Global Health Foundation has provided nearly $5 million in grants focused on improving access to health, building community resilience, and providing disaster support in low- and middle-income countries where Astellas, a company dedicated to improving the health of people around the world, does not have a commercial presence.

About the Astellas Global Health Foundation
The Astellas Global Health Foundation is a tax-exempt, non-profit corporation that awards grants to support charitable purposes with a focus on improving access to health in underserved global communities, building resilient communities and providing disaster support in order to make a sustainable impact on the health of people around the world, working toward "One World, A Healthier Tomorrow." To learn more about the Astellas Global Health Foundation please visit www.astellasglobalhealthfoundation.org.

About CARE
Founded in 1945 with the creation of the CARE Package®, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE has more than seven decades of experience delivering emergency aid during times of crisis. Our emergency responses focus on the needs of the most vulnerable populations, particularly girls and women. Last year CARE worked in 100 countries and reached close to 70 million people around the world. To learn more, visit www.care.org.

About International Medical Corps
International Medical Corps is a global humanitarian and relief organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering. For more than 35 years, it has delivered emergency medical and related services to those affected by conflict, disaster and disease, no matter where they are, no matter what the conditions. Since its founding by volunteer doctors and nurses responding to urgent needs in Afghanistan, it also has focused on training people in their communities, providing them with the skills they need to recover, chart their own path to self-reliance and become effective first responders themselves. To learn more about the organization and how it's battling COVID-19 worldwide, please visit https://internationalmedicalcorps.org/covid19.

About the Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning (JOICFP)
JOICFP was established in 1968 as a tax-exempt and non-profit organization to conduct international cooperation programs in the fields of population, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), family planning, maternal and child health and adolescent health. Under the mission "to create a society where everyone can realize their potential, by enabling each individual, especially women in developing countries, to make their own choices regarding SRHR through ensuring access to quality health services and comprehensive information," JOICFP has implemented projects in over 36 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America with the approach of valuing individual choices and actions combined with community support. JOICFP has held the UN/ECOSOC Consultative Status since 2005. To learn more about JOICFP please visit www.joicfp.or.jp.

About World Vision
World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities in nearly 100 countries to help them reach their full potential by tackling the root causes of poverty and injustice. World Vision serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.  World Vision's global COVID-19 response is active in 70 countries.  World Vision has been working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1984. In addition to the COVID–19 response, our work there focuses on health and nutrition, education, child protection, and livelihoods and resilience.

SOURCE Astellas