As the pandemic reaches Haiti, six B|G|O companies have pooled resources for a single response: Aciérie d’Haïti, the fuel distribution business operating under Total, and Sol, the cement producer KÒLÒS, Huileries Haïtiennes (HUHSA), Lafito Industrial Free Zone, and Port Lafito. The commitment totals US$500,000 and is directed at the two things the country needs first: the ability to detect the virus and the means to slow it.
The first is 5,000 Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 test kits, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, delivered to the Laboratoire National de Santé Publique of the Ministry of Public Health and Population. The donation was made in coordination with the national strategy against COVID-19, at a time when testing supplies are scarce worldwide.
The second is more than 1 million bars of soap. Distribution began weeks ago, moving through the companies’ commercial networks, reaching the capital and the most remote parts of the country, and continuing through community, religious, and social organizations.
Reuven Bigio, Chairman of B|G|O, stated:
“These donations represent the commitment of B|G|O and its partners, and of every employee of the companies represented here, toward the Haitian population. On one hand, we wanted the donation of these 5,000 tests to have a real impact on the effort led by the Government and by health professionals. On the other, we wanted to reach Haitian families directly and immediately, so they could have greater access to soap, a basic element in this fight.”
⸻
The response draws on what the companies already have: manufacturing, distribution networks that reach where formal logistics often do not, and relationships across the public sector. It is the same approach B|G|O has taken to every emergency in Haiti before this one.