700 PNG Red Cross staff and 1,275 community health workers from 13 provinces in PNG will benefit from Personal Protective Equipments including masks and hand sanitizers which were kindly donated by The Coca Cola Foundation. The Coca Cola Foundation which is the international philanthropic arm of the Coca Cola Company recently announced a grant of K350, 000 to The Australian Red Cross to procure PPEs for PNG Red Cross staff and Community Health workers. This donation is expected to enable Red Cross staff and health workers to support and deliver COVID-19 public Health messaging and information to an additional 30,000 vulnerable community members across PNG. CEO of the Australian Red Cross Mr Kym Pfitzner said PNG is experiencing a surge in COVID-19 which is placing enormous strain on the country’s health system and therefore the PNG Red Cross is responding with adequate access of PPEs for staff and volunteers. “This support from Coca Cola Foundation and Coca Cola Europacific Partners PNG will allow PNG Red Cross staff and volunteers to safely work in communities across the country providing accurate information about COVID-19 so people can protect themselves and stop the spread of the virus.” Pfitzner said. Meanwhile the General Manager for Coca Cola Europacific Partners Mr Philippe Mondada said they will be utilising their extensive logistics network to make sure that the PPEs arrive at the designated location. He said even though this was the first donation to Red Cross PNG, The Coca Cola Foundation has been actively making donations throughout world since the beginning of the pandemic. “In the year 2020, the foundation announced a massive $56M USD for global COVID-19 funding, with an additional $20M USD for this year 2021.” “This is to support non-profit partners working to stop the spread of COVID-19 through vaccine distribution, supplying PPEs and public awareness on the virus.” Mr Mondada said it is important for Coca Cola as a business to be involved in stopping the spread of the virus which has disrupted a lot of business operations. “COVID-19 has caused significant disruptions across all of society and defiantly as a business, we are very aware of the impact COVID-19 has on our staff, our customers and our consumers” “Therefore, we very much want to be part of the solution and we have done that by supporting our staff in the workplace as well as through donations such as this one that will go towards supporting communities.” Mondada said.