The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) has announced the first round of grants under its $100 million Global Relief Initiative to help alleviate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thirty-five grants totalling over $31 million focus on food, mental health, and health needs in some of the hardest hit regions of the United States and Europe, as well as worldwide, and on aiding health care staff on the front lines in Greece.
“We cannot overstate the impact of the pandemic on society at large, and we owe our deepest gratitude to those who continue, in spite of the immense challenges they face daily, to serve the most vulnerable among us,” said SNF Co-President Andreas Dracopoulos.
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“Within our lifetimes, the need has never been greater. Our collective response will have to be both swift and forward-looking; these immediate grants represent the first step from SNF on a long path, as the effects of the pandemic will be with us for a long time.”
Since 1996, the Foundation has committed more than $3 billion through more than 4,600 grants to nonprofit organisations in 126 nations around the world.
Grant for Greek Healthcare Workers
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation have gifted a total of nearly $11.9 million to the Greek COVID-19 relief. This has been carefully divided, with $8.1 million in bonuses given to 5,000 hospital staff, and the remaining $3.8 million for access to food and mental health support in Greece.
“Greece has a special place in SNF’s heart and work, being our birthplace,” a press release by the SNF says.
“Particularly cognizant of the fact that Greece was in the process of starting to overcome a deep ten-year socioeconomic crisis, SNF has given special care to addressing immediate needs and risks specific to the nation in collaboration with the public sector.”
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Below is a breakdown of where the $11.9 million will be distributed in Greece, supplied by SNF:
Access to Food
- Central Union of Greek Municipalities (KEDE), Greece: Providing food supplies through Social Food Outlets in municipalities around Greece for the immediate support of people suffering from the socioeconomic effects of the pandemic. The grant will be implemented with the collaboration and supervision of Deloitte to ensure fast, effective, and transparent distribution of the supplies.
- Boroume, Greece: Implementing a transparent voucher system in coordination with Greek municipalities to provide impacted families with food in the middle term of the crisis, implemented from September to December 2020
Mental Health Support
- A comprehensive effort with the Greek Ministry of Health to provide psychological support in response to needs engendered by the COVID-19 pandemic
Direct Support for Frontline Greek Hospital Staff
Under the current circumstances, the Foundation is taking the extraordinary step of providing $8.1 million in support directly to the most critical element of the country’s health system: individual hospital staff. An SNF gesture of appreciation to be shared equally among nearly 5,000 frontline nurses, doctors, and cleaning personnel working in ICUs at COVID-19 clinics will acknowledge the altruistic efforts of these heroes on the front line of efforts against the pandemic in Greece who risk their lives to save others.
Bolstering health infrastructure in Greece through collaboration with the public sector is a longtime and continuing focus for SNF, which is already in the middle of a more than $400 million Health Initiative in the country. As part of this effort, renovation of the second ICU and the ER at Evangelismos Hospital in Athens is underway through a partnership between SNF and Thanasis and Marina Martinos.
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