What is Fondation de France doing specifically during the Covid pandemic?

Fondation de France’s relief work during the Covid pandemic

Faced with the Covid pandemic, Fondation de France swung into action as early as March 2020 to help health workers, researchers and local nonprofits directly in contact with the most vulnerable.

An alliance that supports health workers, research and the most vulnerable

The “United Against the Virus” alliance is the result of Fondation de France, Paris hospitals and Institut Pasteur deciding to join forces and mobilize their network. Given the extent of the need, a call for funds was launched on March 24, 2020 to support health workers and researchers and to help those most vulnerable: homeless people, disabled people, people with psychological disorders, families facing hardship and so on.

To meet the most urgent pandemic-generated needs, Fondation de France quickly approached many people and organizations in the social and healthcare sectors, to find out what they needed. For example, it interacted with several French university hospitals to offer them help in purchasing medical equipment

• in order to contain the spread of the virus, to understand it better and tackle it over time, the research projects selected are based mainly on scientific challenge and the following goals:
• the study of the new coronavirus and of the current pandemic, to limit its spread;
• the development of tests for the detection of viral antibodies in the population;
• the design of effective and innovative treatment to beat the new coronavirus;
• the development of vaccines;
• the study of the epidemic’s impact on healthcare and health workers;
• the study of the lockdown’s impact on various demographic groups.

Fondation de France is also reinforcing its support to local projects, engaging with the most vulnerable people.

This call for funds ended on June 30, 2020 but it meant that some of the projects undertaken can continue.

Projects for reconstruction

As is its habit when engaged in emergency interventions, Fondation de France is keen to take on the duty of lasting reconstruction. It is also keen to continue responding to the crisis. On November 4, 2020, a new call for funds was launched, to combat the second wave of the pandemic. The aim is to act now and going forward, to help health workers and the most vulnerable.

Fondation de France also plans to help grassroots organizations recover their capacity, especially small nonprofits, particularly hard hit by the pandemic. This support is crucial since many programs and projects will be essential in helping vulnerable people, whose numbers are unfortunately set to rise sharply.

Read a summary of Fondation de France’s Covid-related work on the ground.