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Ikea Foundation sends millions to fight Ebola

Paul O'Mahony
Paul O'Mahony - [email protected]
Ikea Foundation sends millions to fight Ebola

The Ikea Foundation has donated 45 million kronor ($6.2 million) to aid organization Doctors Without Borders in an attempt to tackle West Africa's growing Ebola outbreak.

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The corporate social responsibility wing of the Ikea empire, the Ikea Foundation, has sent its biggest donation in history directly to the French-founded organization.
 
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that over 3,000 people have died from the Ebola virus, which broke out in West Africa in March.
 
Doctors Without Borders has 2,000 workers in the region. 
 
The donation is expected to help fund the work of the aid-organization, also known by its French name Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), until the end of next year.
 
Private donors make up around 80 percent of the organization's funding, and Ikea has called for more global players to follow suit. 
 
"We hope that more private donors will jump in and contribute," Per Heggenes, the CEO of the Ikea Foundation, said in a statement. 
 
"This crisis, just like others, won't disappear quickly. The pain won't go away for those who've lost their loved ones. This is why organizations like Doctors Without Borders needs long-term support from partners like the Ikea Foundation."
 
Ebola has a fatality rate of up to 90 percent according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), but during the current outbreak the survival rate has been 47 percent.

The virus is transmitted by direct contact with blood and body fluids.

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