PPF Group provides help worth CZK 200 million in the coronavirus fight
In total, this includes several tens of tonnes of materials which PPF Group has purchased in China and other Asian countries, as well as in Europe. PPF has donated 6.9 million respirators and surgical masks, 30,000 testing swabs, 570,000 pairs of medical gloves, and thousands of medical goggles and thermometers. In addition to the Czech Republic, which has received help worth in excess of CZK 100 million, PPF has donated medical equipment to a further eight countries; this assistance was specifically channelled into India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, the US, the Philippines, Montenegro, and Bulgaria.
In addition to providing help in the form of medical equipment, PPF Group has given CZK 10 million to support the manufacturing of CoroVent ventilators made by the Czech company MICo and being developed at the Czech Technical University in cooperation with the COVID19CZ platform. PPF has provided over CZK 25 million to the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic for the purchase of ventilators and in the form of paying for logistics services in Shanghai. PPF has also helped facilitate the government in Serbia to buy respirators. The recipients of PPF’s assistance have most often been health ministries or the national institutions responsible for coordinating help in their respective countries, as well as, on occasion, local hospitals.
“I regard helping others as part of our human, but also corporate responsibility. Health and family are the most valuable assets that we have. Help and solidarity are the pillars of humanity, and it is a responsibility of each one of us to pursue them, and not only at times of crises. We have helped in all countries in which we do business and where our help was needed. I want to thank all of our employees who have dedicated their time to helping people and the communities that we are a part of. It has frequently entailed unbelievable logistical battles. We have learned a lot,” said Petr Kellner, PPF founder and majority shareholder.
