CRAIOVA, Romania — Ford Motor Company Fund, working with its international grant making partner GlobalGiving, Ford Romania, the Craiova City Hall and nonprofit Rotary Craiova Probitas opened a public COVID-19 vaccination center in May 2021 to help the rollout of the vaccine to the local community.
This center was authorized by the Dolj Public Health Direction, with the approval of the National Committee for Vaccination Coordination with the support of the Health Ministry and Dolj Prefecture. A Ford Fund investment of $175,000 was provided to the medical nonprofit Rotary Craiova Probitas who managed the center and administered the vaccines. The center was located on the premises of Ford Romania plant facility in an area which was refurbished for this purpose by Ford Romania.
At the opening, Ford Romania President Josephine Payne commented, "Since the pandemic broke out, we have made every effort to keep everyone safe and secure. We are now at the most important point of this challenge—vaccination. Health and safety is our top priority and we are now happy to join the efforts of the local authorities and support access to vaccination to the entire population of Craiova."
In addition to administering 14,611 vaccines over a seven-month period, the Rotary Probitas team worked with volunteers from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova to implement face-to-face campaigns to encourage reflection on vaccination, explain more about how vaccines work and present scientific information to those who had questions and wanted to know more. In parallel, they turned to the people who lived in the villages and, together with a mobile team, started providing vaccinations in the countryside.
Adrian Camen, the Rotary Probitas project leader of this initiative, said, "Despite all the unique changes and challenges relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are very proud of our hard work to support and help protect the community. In addition to running the vaccination center, our actions also included equipping a COVID-19 laboratory in Craiova and thus supporting the County Emergency Clinical Hospital, as well as supporting the Victor Babeș Infectious Diseases Hospital and raising awareness of the importance of vaccination."