The Elias Nassief Foundation has donated a ventilator to the Dominica China Friendship Hospital. A handing over ceremony was held on Friday March 12, 2021.
Representative for the Elias Nassief Foundation Mrs. Maroussia Nassief-Reid says the ventilator is at a cost of thirty thousand US dollars.
“Forgoing all other donations, the foundation took this as a priority and ordered a state of the art ventilator costing US 30,000 dollars. The ventilator was ordered last year February, but due to the backlog of orders from the pandemic, it was only delivered to Dominica last month. A special thank you to Minister McIntyre for facilitating this process. So on behalf of the Elias Nassief Foundation, I am pleased to donate this ventilator to the DCFH in the hopes that it will facilitate this hospital and benefit the people of Dominica,” Mrs. Nassief-Reid stated.
Mrs. Nassief-Reid says the foundation saw the need to donate the ventilator after the start of the covid-19 pandemic.
“The ENF was established in 1995 by the children of Elias and Marie Nassief ad is used primarily to assist schools, day care centres, the elderly, retired nurses past employees and others in need of help. The foundation does not solicit funding request but will instead choose the institution or person to be assisted on an annual basis. Last year with the sudden impact of the covid-19 pandemic, the foundation, with the advice of several people, decided that the DCFH was in need of a dependable and durable ventilator,” she explained.
Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health, Wellness and New Health Investment Mrs. Letitia Lestrade-Wyke says the foundation has made donations to Dominica in the past.
“This is not the first time that the Elias Nassief Foundation has been assisting and making contributions to the health services in Dominica and I am sure that it will not be the last,” Mrs. Lestrade-Wyke added.