Drogba offers hospital in Abidjan for Covid-19 screening

 

By Muambo Edward & Angu Lesley, kick442.com

African football great Didier Drogba has offered his hospital in his native Côte d’Ivoire to serve as a Coronavirus treatment facility.

Drogba opened the doors of the Abidjan based hospital in 2016 and he named it after after former Côte d’Ivoire forward Laurent Pokou.

The hospital is part of Drogba’s Foundation that was launched by the former Marseille and Chelsea forward to provide support in education and health across the continent by providing financial and material support in both sectors of interest.

Head of the regional hospital in Abidja, Vincent Toh Bi Irie has saluted Drogba’s gesture and acknowledges that it will go a long way to help them in their efforts to fight against the spread of the dreaded COVID-19.

“We thank Drogba for his gift considered as an act of patriotism,” Vincent said.

Côte d’Ivoire has recorded a total of 574 Coronavirus cases with five deaths, since the first case was recorded in the west African country.

Meanwhile, www.kickgh.com reports that Watford and England forward Danny Welbeck has donated a £10,000 relief package to the residents of his mother’s home town in Ghana as the Coronavirus pandemic continues to impact global economy.

The relief package distributed to residents of Nkawiepanin in the Atwima Nwabiagya municipality in the Ashanti Region, includes food, sanitary items and sanitizers.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) was also donated to the doctors and nurses in Nkawie Government Hospital in the Ashanti region.

As of Sunday, Ghana has recorded 566 cases of Covid-19 — the most hit in West Africa — while the government has extended its partial lockdown in some major cities by a week.

The donation was made on Welbeck’s behalf by his aunt, Charlotte Adwoa Tumutuom.

The England international was born ‘Daniel Nii Tackie Mensah Welbeck’, to Ghanaian parents in London. He last visited Ghana in 2017 to see his extended family and a school he funded in the Ashanti region.

Welbeck was eligible to play for the Black Stars before he made his England debut in a friendly fixture against Ghana at Wembley in 2011.

The former Manchester United and Arsenal forward has played 42 games for the Three Lions, scoring 16 goals.

He is the latest Premier League footballer to make donations in order to fight Coronavirus, despite players having previously been criticised for a perceived lack of effort amid the pandemic which has killed more than 10,000 people in Britain and has shut down football in the country indefinitely.

Former Barcelona and Sevilla midfielder Seydou Keita has also made material donations to families in Bamako, Mali as part of his support in the fight against Coronavirus pandemic.

Keita’s package contain 300 bags of sugar, 100 gallons of oil, 557 bags of rice and 611 bags of millets 

Seydou Gatigui, Kader Guèye, Sory Kourouma, Yacouba Diakité were amongst a handful of retired footballers and ex-internationals who equally benefitted from Keita’s gesture.

The former captain of the Eagles of Mali reached out to 600 families on Monday barely hours after the Mali’s president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita called for mobilization of resources in the fight against virus.

Speaking to Francis Ahle from his base in Barcelona, Keita justified his actions, saying: “We decided to do this today because we understand the difficulties our people are going through.

“Government has imposed some prevention measures, so we believe our little support will enable our people respect the government measures for the good of Mali,” Keita said.

The one time Marseille and Valencia midfielder, who enjoyed an 18-year successful career abroad and won 102 caps for Mali, is noted for being involved in humanitarian gestures.

Two weeks ago, Southampton’s young Malian forward Moussa Djenepo donated three millions FCFA to support the same fight.

So far, the West African nation has reported 105 cases of infected persons and two deaths.