Inditex to earmark a further €2.5 million to MSF’s emergency, humanitarian and refugee and migrant relief work
/ 9.5 million people under threat of armed conflict, epidemics, diseases or natural disasters have received medical and humanitarian care as a result of the more than €37 million donated by Inditex to MSF projects since 2008.
/ The project supporting MSF’s Emergency Unit and the Desk’s Regional Teams will receive €1.3 million; the project assisting Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh will get €650,000; and the programme for the provision of medical care to migrants and vulnerable people in Mexico will get another €550,000 of funding.
Inditex has reinforced its commitment to the emergency programmes of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the refugee relief work being done by the humanitarian organisation in Bangladesh and Mexico, to which it is earmarking a further €2.5 million, as part of the annual collaboration project between the two organisations. The partnership with MSF, to which Inditex has devoted more than €37 million since 2008, has allowed 9.5 million people threatened by armed conflicts, epidemics, disease and natural disasters to receive medical care.
Inditex’s CEO, Óscar García Maceiras, and the managing director of MSF in Spain, Marta Cañas, signed the annual renewal of the agreement between the two organisations today at the Group’s head offices in Arteixo (Coruña, Spain), an agreement that has fostered numerous medical and humanitarian action projects in different parts of the world.
Emergency Unit and Regional Teams
The Emergency Unit, based in Barcelona, and the Regional Teams, based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic, will receive €1.3 million out of the total €2.5 million of funds to be provided under the annual agreement. Thanks to these teams, to whom Inditex has been providing stable funding for more than 12 years, MSF is ready to provide a medical response to humanitarian crises anywhere in the world during the first 72 hours after the alarm is raised.
The Emergency Unit is currently providing assistance amid the conflicts ongoing in Ukraine, Palestine and Sudan, while also attending to medical emergencies in Angola, Mozambique and Chad. It also helped the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria in 2023.
The support provided to the Regional Teams in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (RUSC) and the Central African Republic (EURECA) additionally enables the provision of assistance to victims of the violence, displacement and epidemics that afflict these countries’ populations.
Care for Rohingya refugees
In response to the medical and humanitarian needs of the Rohingya community, Inditex has been supporting MSF’s work in Cox’s Bazar, in southern Bangladesh, since the onset of the crisis in 2017. Over a million displaced Rohingya refugees are currently sheltering in Cox’ Bazaar where conditions are extremely harsh and there is limited access to drinking water and food. The refugees cannot leave the camps to work or get higher education.
Inditex is allocating €650,000 to the provision of basic medical care to the people fighting to survive in the Balukhali camp, paying particular attention to children under the age of five, nursling and pregnant women.
Migrants and vulnerable people in Mexico
The agreement will also shore up the care provided to migrants and refugees crossing Mexico on their quest to reach the US, paying special attention to the victims of extreme violence, by allocating a further €550,000 of funds to this programme.
Inditex has been funding the basic medical and psychological care provided by MSF to these people, mainly from Venezuela, Guatemala and Honduras, since 2018.
The MSF teams are located in different shelters for helping migrants along the route and in mobile clinics dotted around the busiest points where they provide basic medical and mental health assistance, as well has handing out hygiene products, water and blankets.