ATHENS, Greece – September 11, 2014 – The Stavros Niarchos Foundation has announced a $500,000 emergency relief grant to the international non-profit organization Doctors Without Borders, to help combat the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
The grant will provide general support to the efforts of Doctors Without Borders, helping them address the increasing challenges of the epidemic. Moreover part of the grant will be used to support the refugee camps in Ethiopia housing refugees from Sudan, which were seriously damaged following recent torrential rain in the area.
The World Health Organization has declared this Ebola epidemic an “international public health emergency.” International efforts to stem the outbreak require immediate support. These response efforts include, among others, medical care, the training of health staff, infection control, contact tracing, epidemiological surveillance, alert and referral systems, community education and mobilization.
Doctors Without Borders is the international humanitarian-aid organization that is leading the fight against the Ebola epidemic on the ground in West Africa. Doctors Without Borders won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999 “in recognition of the organization’s pioneering humanitarian work on several continents”. Its medical staff have worked in more than 80 countries and treated tens of millions of people.
“With this grant, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation is supporting the essential work of Doctors Without Borders in West Africa and joining the crucial fight to conquer the Ebola epidemic,” said Andreas Dracopoulos – Co-President of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.
During its 18 years of grant-making activity, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation has provided 60 emergency relief grants responding to urgent and extreme needs all over the world. Among others, the Foundation provided emergency grants to assist relief efforts in response to the devastating floods in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, provided emergency relief assistance to support those affected by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, approved an emergency grant in response to the devastating earthquake that hit the island of Kefalonia in Greece, and assisted a variety of relief and aid operations in New York in response to Superstorm Sandy.
# # #
About the Stavros Niarchos Foundation
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) (www.SNF.org) is one of the world’s leading international philanthropic organizations, making grants in the areas of arts and culture, education, health and sports, and social welfare. The Foundation funds organizations and projects that exhibit strong leadership and sound management and are expected to achieve a broad, lasting and positive social impact. The Foundation also seeks actively to support projects that facilitate the formation of public-private partnerships as effective means for serving public welfare.
From 1996 until today, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation has approved grant commitments of $1.45 billion / €1.10 billion, through 2,718 grants to nonprofit organizations in 110 nations around the world.
In 2012 and 2013, the Foundation announced two new initiatives of €100,000,000 ($130 million) each, to help the efforts to address the crisis in Greece. While the initiative in 2012, which has almost been completed, aimed to provide immediate relief against the adverse effects of the deepening crisis, the one in 2013 aims to address the high percentage of youth unemployment, seeking to create better employment prospects and new opportunities for the young.
The Board of Directors of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation consists of: Andreas Dracopoulos – Co-President, Spyros Niarchos – Co-President, Philip Niarchos –Co-President, George Agouridis and Heini Murer.
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation was elected and will be a Board Member of the European Foundation Centre (www.efc.be) for 2014-2017.
