The impact of COVID-19 has put a lot of extra pressure on frontline staff at the St Vincent de Paul Society NSW (Vinnies) to support the huge increase of families in need. To help support Vinnies frontline members, volunteers, and workers and to protect the hundreds of families that visit their support centers on a daily basis, Amazon Australia teamed up with Harris Technology to donate 180,000 units of hand sanitiser.
Garrison Huang, CEO of Harris Technology, said "Vinnies, as one of largest charities in Australia, does such great work for the most vulnerable. Harris Technology together with Amazon was delighted to support Vinnies with hygiene products to protect front line workers risking their own health to support those communities in need.”
Amit Mahto, Head of Amazon Marketplace Australia, said “It was fantastic to work together with Harris Technology to support Vinnies to continue their incredibly important work during the pandemic. At Amazon, we are committed to supporting the communities in which we serve and are grateful to have had this opportunity.”
The St Vincent de Paul Society supports people in need from any background across Australia by providing basic essentials like food and water, bedding and clothing, psychological support, phone credit and other financial assistance. They have centres across the country, providing critical support for people struggling with homelessness, poverty and domestic violence.
“On any given night in Australia more than 116,000 people are homeless. It has been particularly difficult this year with the impact of COVID 19,” said Donna Boyd, Support Centre Coordinator at Vinnies in Redfern for more than 13 years. “Donations like these are so important. We rely on them to protect our Members, volunteers, staff and the hundreds of people visiting us on a daily basis.
“Our Members and volunteers are our backbone, we simply couldn’t do what we do without them. This donation will help us keep them safer through minimising the spread of the virus.”
About Amazon in the Community
Amazon is committed to helping more Aussies from underserved and underrepresented communities gain the resources and skills they need to build their best future. Our support ranges from hunger relief and disaster recovery, to a commitment to STEM and computer science education.
Earlier this year we teamed up with Vinnies to provide more than 1000 young people from disadvantaged backgrounds with resources to help them get back to school. We also collaborated with Foodbank to establish a Food Donation Program through which we have already donated more than 200,000 meals to communities in need.
Some of the ways Amazon is supporting communities around the world are: Making sure more young people learn about STEM and computer science through Amazon Future Engineer; addressing “Right Now Needs” to help ensure students’ basic needs are met in order for them to be successful at school; and supporting global communities following natural disasters.
