Itaú Unibanco announces donation of R$ 1 billion against pandemic

Itaú Unibanco announced on Monday, 13, a donation of more than R$ 1 billion for measures to combat the pandemic. The amount will be invested in the creation of the "Todos pela Saúde" initiative, which aims to fight coronavirus and its effects on Brazilian society. The measure was made official in a conference call with the bank's president, Candido Bracher, and the participation of physician and writer Drauzio Varella and the director general of the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital, Paulo Chapchap. The amount represents the largest donation made by the private sector in Brazil to fight the pandemic to date. The program will work through four axes: inform, protect, care and resume. Among the planned measures are the creation of campaigns to encourage the use of masks by the population, provision of personal protective equipment for health professionals, population testing, support to public managers in the structuring of crisis offices and collaboration for the development of strategies. On its website, the bank says it has donated almost R$ 250 million to initiatives related to coronavirus. At the end of March, R$150 million was allocated to hospital infrastructure, equipment purchase and distribution of food baskets and hygiene kits to vulnerable communities. Other actions such as supporting organizations and purchasing tests were also discriminated against on the institution's website. The program will be led by Paulo Chapchap and has among its members Drauzio Varella, the former president of Anvisa Gonzalo Vecina Neto, the former ceo of the National Health Agency (ANS) Maurício Ceschin, the consultant of the Council of Health Secretaries (CONASS) Eugênio Vilaça Mendes, the president of the Albert Einstein Hospital, Sidney Klajner, and the president of the Institute of Molecular Biology of Paraná (IBMP) , an institution linked to the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Pedro Barbosa. According to the newspaper Valor Econômico, the names of the members would have been indicated by the public and private sectors. In the videoconference, Candido called for the market and society to join the efforts against the pandemic. "Solidarity is a condition of survival at this time," the executive said at the close of the debate among the members of the initiative.