NGO Brings Vaccine Know-How to Eswatini

The humanitarian NGO IsraAID sent a team to the small African state of Eswatini on Monday for two weeks to help with the local vaccine rollout, The Times of Israel reported.

“Israel’s vaccine success story has already reached here, and people really welcome and appreciate our effort,” said Molly Bernstein, a member of the delegation.

The mission is being funded by the South Africa-based Jewish billionaire Nathan Kirsh, who is a citizen of Eswatini.

IsraAID spokesman Ethan Schwartz told Times of Israel that it represents “a first step in IsraAID’s global vaccine initiative. The idea is that this will serve as a pilot for us so that in coming months we can support other countries in vaccine rollout, taking knowledge we got from Israel’s vaccine rollout and using it to support other countries.” He did not say which other countries are on the list.

Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, which borders South Africa and Mozambique, has a population of just over a million and suffers from the highest COVID-19 death rates in Africa. Poverty is extreme, with nearly 40 percent of Eswatini’s people subsisting on less than $1.90 per day.