U.S. donors of all major religions are helping fight COVID-19 at home and abroad.
The United States’ diverse religious communities are setting up emergency hospitals, trucking meals across the country, and supporting small businesses around the world.
In early April, faith-based humanitarian organization Samaritan’s Purse set up an emergency field hospital in New York City’s Central Park when the number of COVID-19 infections began climbing. The 68-bed facility for treating seriously ill patients is similar to a smaller one the group had set up to treat patients near Milan, Italy.
“People are dying from the coronavirus, hospitals are out of beds and the medical staff are overwhelmed,” said Franklin Graham, the president of the Christian charity. “This is what Samaritan’s Purse does — we respond in the middle of crises to help people.”
The U.S. government has led the global response to the pandemic with more than $900 million in emergency health, humanitarian and economic aid. Private U.S. donors have given an additional $3 billion to fight COVID-19 abroad.
According to the Philanthropy Roundtable, a nonprofit that advises donors, U.S. donors give more than $44 billion a year to help impoverished communities around the world. Most donations come from middle-class people. Religious faith motivates more Americans to give than any other factor, the Roundtable says.
U.S. Jews, Muslims and Christians provide help
American Jewish World Service is providing food, masks, hand sanitizer and financial aid in the 19 countries where the group works in Asia, Africa, Central America and the Caribbean.