Morgan Stanley has announced a $100,000 grant to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) for its work in Latin America. This funding, which is in addition to an existing Morgan Stanley grant for MSF work across Europe, will support MSF in its mission to provide intensive care for critically ill patients, medical isolation for mild or moderate cases of COVID-19, and health promotion in urban and rural areas of Brazil and Mexico. MSF teams are working in projects around the world to fight the spread of COVID-19, and to sustain other lifesaving medical aid for communities who are further threatened by this pandemic.
“Local groups and health workers need direct assistance and essential tools in the fight against COVID-19,” said John Moore, Managing Director and head of Latin America at Morgan Stanley. “We are proud to support MSF in their mission to provide medical care where it’s needed most and applaud the MSF team for their important work that is saving thousands of lives globally.”
MSF is working in more than 70 countries to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Brazil, MSF is responding to COVID-19 outbreaks in the cities of São Paulo and Boa Vista. Brazil now has the second highest number of cases of COVID-19 in the world, and the state of Amazonas has among the highest numbers of deaths in the country, despite its relatively small population.
“As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to worsen around the world, it’s taking a devastating toll on lives and the communities in which we live and work,” said Alessandro Zema Silva, Brazil Country Head for Morgan Stanley. “To help address some of these challenges, we are proud to support MSF and their healthcare heroes on the frontline of this global pandemic in Brazil and beyond.”
“This generous grant from Morgan Stanley will help us continue our COVID-19 work in countries especially hard-hit by this pandemic,” said Avril Benoît, executive director of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in the United States. “As we face an unprecedented global health crisis, we rely on the generosity of our donors to provide lifesaving medical care and support to public health efforts in Latin America and around the world.”
MSF’s Covid-19 response projects in Brazil include but are not limited to:
- Responding to an acute peak of COVID-19 in Roraima State, with medical support at a field hospital and health promotion and screening, mainly in shelters for Venezuelan migrants and asylum seekers in the capital city of Boa Vista.
- Running an ICU unit and developing community outreach in an impoverished suburb in eastern São Paulo,
- Identifying high-transmission hotspots of the pandemic that need medical assistance elsewhere in the country.
This is the latest action Morgan Stanley has taken to support communities grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic globally as part of a $25 million commitment. These grants have been given to organizations focused on fighting the disease, caring for the sick and providing food and financial support for those most vulnerable in communities who are struggling with the economic loss. As part of the $25 million commitment, the Firm launched the Morgan Stanley COVID-19 Hunger Relief Campaign, which facilitated employee contributions to critical feeding partners in all of the Firm’s major global locations and the Firm matched employee contributions raising over $3.3 million for designated feeding programs.
