Safaricom has today extended its support to our frontline health workers with monthly communication bundles that were first unveiled in April this year. The support was to run for three months but will now be extended for a further three months. This comes amidst times when no real cure for the current pandemic has been discovered.
In the donation, over 5,500 frontline health workers will continue receiving communication bundles that add up to 195 terabytes of data, 10 million voice call minutes and 33 million SMSs. Each health worker is expected to receive a cumulative monthly bundle that include 12GB data, 600 minutes and 2,000 SMSs.
Speaking on the development, Dr. Rashid Abdi Aman, Chief Administrative Secretary, Ministry of Health acknowledged that health workers were our first line of defense, and the continued support from Safaricom was a big boost to the government’s containment efforts. Rashid further said more resources were required to enable the frontline teams safeguard the health of Kenyans.
Speaking for Safaricom, Joseph Ogutu, Chief Special Projects Officer said noted the country was behind health workers and the telco was honored to play a part in ensuring they were protected. Ogutu also said they’ll continue working with the government and other partners to support the frontline teams.
Samsung Electronics East Africa also donated 500 Samsung Galaxy A2 Core smartphones worth KES 3.8 million towards improving communication and to monitor and aid the movement of testing and care teams.
Samsung’s director of mobile in East Africa Charles Kimari said the company was keen to support Kenya and were fortunate as a company to be able to leverage the power of their innovative technology to respond to the core pillars designed to curb the spread of COVID-19. Kimari further said contribution of these smartphones to the Ministry of Health was designed to better equip the brave, frontline responders.