ELMA Commits ZAR2 Billion to COVID-19
Photo: Ubuntu Pathways
The COVID-19 pandemic strained already vulnerable health systems, forced millions of families into poverty, caused school closures and learning loss for children, and disrupted maternal, newborn, and child health services. At the start of 2021, the African continent had 2.3 million cases and 52,905 deaths*.
To address this profound humanitarian crisis, ELMA drew on 15 years of experience investing in and with African governments, community-based organizations, universities, and non-governmental organizations to deploy over ZAR2 billion to mitigate the direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19 on children, families, and communities across the world, primarily in Africa.
The majority of ELMA’s COVID-19 investments were made in the following areas:
Direct COVID-19 Response: controlling the spread of COVID-19 and mitigating its direct medical impacts
Protecting Essential Services: ensuring that maternal, newborn, and child health care is protected and maintained during the pandemic
Supporting Early Childhood Development and Learning: reducing the impacts of school closures and early childhood development and learning
Safety Net Support for Vulnerable Communities: supporting the basic needs of particularly vulnerable communities during the pandemic
The ELMA Community Grants Program, which is now Masana wa Afrika, provided emergency support grants to our portfolio of over 100 community-based organizations.
Active ELMA COVID-19 Response Investments:
The ELMA Foundation
