Senegalese Football star donates 30 million CFA Francs to combat COVID-19

Senegalese Football star Sadio Mane has been praised this week after news of his massive donation to his home community and country was announced. The Liverpool player, voted as the 2019 CAF African Player of the Year, donated an amount of 30 million CFA Francs (approx. 41k GBP) to Senegal as they continue their fight against Coronavirus. 

Those who’ve been following the Coronavirus preparedness on the motherland will remember that the West African nation was one of two African countries able to test for Coronavirus at early stages in January. Now, they’re lending a helping hand to countries such as the UK as cases in Europe country rise and panic spreads. 

The news of Mane’s donation comes as Africans at home and abroad urge their nations to increase measures to contain the virus threat as cases continue to rise worldwide. 

This isn’t the first time Mane has given back to his community, in particular his home village of Bambali in Senegal’s Sédhiou region .

His mission to give back is thought to have begun when he funded the building of a hospital, before moving on to make his mark in local education. In July 2019 the star took a trip to his village to see progress on the building of a school valued at 250,000 GBP, a project funded exclusively by him.

​Throughout the year Mane continues to support his community by paying money on a monthly basis to families in the village in a bid to help them get by. This includes giving out free football kits to local children, many of whom see him as their hero. 

And while contributing to the development of our respective countries, communities and continent should be a must for us all, it’s always particularly good to see it happening on such a large and public scale.