Ferrovial will allocate 3.5 million of its «Ferrovial Juntos COVID-19» fund for the purchase of equipment and research
Madrid
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The construction group Ferrovial has announced this Friday the distribution ofa first tranche of the «Ferrovial Juntos COVID-19» fund for an amount of 3,470.00 euros. A figure that will go to entities that fight the pandemic from the social, health and research fields in Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, as reported by the company in a statement.
In the health field, the company has assigned 2 million euros for the acquisition of 700,000 FFP2 masks and 70 respirators which are being donated to the Communities of Madrid, Valencia, Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, Galicia and Cantabria. They have also donated 20 respirators to the National Health Service, UK, for an approximate value of another 60,000 euros.
The company stressed that the pandemic is having "a high impact on vulnerable families in need of immediate support to cover basic needs such as food, hygiene products, and medicine." For this reason, the Spanish multinational has chosen to dedicate 1 million euros from this first tranche to collaborate with institutions of recognized prestige in this activity.
The benefited entities are Caritas, in Spain; Food Bank (through different local food banks), in the United States, and SSAFA Emergency Response Fund, Lighthouse Construction Charity and The Trussell Trust, in the United Kingdom. To these quantities we must add a donation of 10,000 euros to the Foundation of the College of Civil Engineers to help the affected professionals directly because of the pandemic.
250,000 euros for the CSIC
The last group of this first section amounts to 400,000 euros and is dedicated to research seeking the development of a vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, causing the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Center for Biotechnology, which is part of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), will receive 250,000 euros which will go to two projects for the development of vaccines. One is based on reconstruction of the virus genome from DNA fragments chemically synthesized.
The second is based on the development of the protein S-based vaccine. Another center that will also benefit from these funds, with a contribution from 150,000 euros, is Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, United States, who is currently working on the development of a vaccine to modify the virus' proteins.
By country, the distribution of the fund as of today would be as follows: Spain, with 2,510,000 euros; United States, 650,000 euros, and the United Kingdom, 310,000 euros.
A company solidarity fund
Ferrovial has set up the «Ferrovial Juntos COVID-19» fund with a initial contribution of 5 million euros by the company. In parallel, it has launched a recruitment initiative among employees, directors, shareholders, collaborators, suppliers and anyone who wants to participate to increase the amount. The company will double the amount raised until reaching its contribution a maximum of 10 million.
3,470,000 million donations
Until now, the «Ferrovial Juntos COVID-19» fund has obtained a collection of 1,245,675 euros, which will be doubled with a complementary amount of 2,491,349 by the company, which together with Ferrovial's initial contribution of 5 million euros, bringing the total endowment to 8,737,024 euros.
To date, according to estimates by the infrastructure group, the company has allocated donations for a total of 3,470,000 euros, so that as of today it would be pending to expand the donations for an amount of 5,267,024 euros. In the coming weeks, Ferrovial will inform public opinion of the destination of its Juntos COVID-19 fund.
