Barça Foundation handles large donation of medical material from technology giant Tencent
In the face of the health emergency caused by the spread of Covid-19, FC Barcelona, through the Barça Foundation is continuing its work to help in every way possible to address the crisis. And a new partnership has now been set up, namely an agreement with the Chinese internet company Tencent, through the Tencent Charity Foundation, which has made a significant donation of medical equipment and materials. The first instalment of 15,000 sets of individual protective equipment (PPE) has already arrived and will be distributed via the Barça Foundation to different hospitals and healthcare professionals currently working to deal with the pandemic and alleviate the effects of coronavirus.
A few days ago, Tencent launched a $100 million Global Anti-Pandemic Fund to help curb the devastating spread of Covid-19. The money will be used to finance basic and vital healthcare supplies, including protective equipment and other hospital and healthcare products. The Barça Foundation has agreed to support Tencent by managing and distributing part of this material in Catalonia.
This is the first batch of a series of consignments that will be sent in the coming days and whose purpose is to help the healthcare staff working on the front line by helping to compensate for the lack of medical material to cope with the Covid-19 crisis.
The comprehensive protection equipment that has arrived today includes a hood for healthcare professionals, whose composition and characteristics meet the protection requirements for use in Intensive Care Units (ICU) at the hospitals where care is provided to Covid-19 patients.
In association with Miniclip, MSF and Serveto
The material’s arrival has been organised in coordination with Miniclip, one of the Tencent companies, through Miniclip Portugal. Miniclip is a global leader in digital games. The company develops, publishes and distributes games across mobile, social and online platforms.
Additionally, Catalan logistics company Serveto, which has been associated to FC Barcelona since 2013 as a partner to its professional sports teams, is also making an altruistic contribution by taking charge of the transport of all the material to different medical centres in Catalonia. Thanks also go to Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Spain for their support and guidance with this first consignment of material.
Help in times of crisis
This action is a yet another example of FC Barcelona’s intention to serve. The club has made itself available to health authorities from the outset by fulfilling and enforcing their instructions to combat the spread of the virus and to do all it can to support the fight against the effects of Covid-19. The club has been running awareness campaigns, allowed the use of its facilities and has managed to obtain medical equipment. It has also used the Barça Foundation to channel all initiatives and projects both nationally and internationally to help fight the pandemic.
Both the Club and the Foundation have called on their partners to work together to help deal with the effects of the coronavirus crisis by donating medical equipment and supplies. This call to action has already produced results, such as the donation of 30,000 masks in association with its partner Taiping Life Insurance, which the Government of Catalonia’s Ministry of Health has allocated to nursing homes. This shared project with Tencent is a further example.
To help combat this crisis, the club, among other measures, has made its facilities available to the health authorities and for research projects, such as the one that began on Friday at the Camp Nou and which involves the collection of samples for a study to prevent new Covid-19 infections. The club has also launched a telephone and face-to-face monitoring program with Red Cross volunteers, ‘T’Acompanyem a casa’ (We accompany you at home), for members over the age of 80 with the aim of helping to keep them informed, check up on their health and assist them with anything they need.
Dídac Lee, director responsible for the Digital Area of the Club
"Tencent is one of the leading companies in China and for some years now it has been one of the main collaborators of the Club’s Digital Area. We have a very close relationship, which has allowed us to access the fund created by the company to help stop the spread of this pandemic, which is one of the main funds globally. We are really grateful to Tencent for this first shipment and for the others that are yet to arrive. Barça, through our Foundation, from the first day we have been committed to fight this pandemic by making our facilities available and by bringing medical material in our country. "