Every minute in Los Angeles County, about 10 people test positive for Covid-19; someone dies from the virus every eight minutes. The county has reported more than one million cases of Covid-19 since January 26, 2020.

To protect children in disadvantaged areas from catching the virus, Israeli non-profit SmartAID is supplying one million children’s masks and 600,000 bottles of hand sanitizer in Los Angeles County.

The masks were donated by PPE-maker FLTR — which has donated more than three million masks in California, Washington and Utah, not all through the SmartAID program — and are being distributed via shipping giant DHL and the American Red Cross.

SmartAID established the “Millions of Masks for Children Initiative” in Washington State and has now spread to other hard-hit states.

“It takes a team of great organizations and dedicated individuals working together to make our vision of helping millions of kids across America a reality during this pandemic,” said Trang Le, cofounder of the Millions of Masks for Children Initiative and a SmartAID volunteer.

We are “pleased to see our FLTR masks and hand sanitizer getting to vulnerable communities that have the greatest need during Covid-19,” added Jason Lemelson, CEO of FLTR.

SmartAID specializes in the adaptation, integration and use of technology and tools “that can exponentially improve the efficiency of traditional humanitarian settings,” the organization says.

With offices in Israel, the US and Australia, SmartAID offers disaster support, in-field technology adaption, and long-term tech assistance. In 2020, SmartAID teams were dispatched to help with disasters in the Bahamas (following Hurricane Dorian), the Philippines, Greece, Lebanon, Iraq and more.

“In Los Angeles, we are supporting the hardest-hit areas and want to make sure that the most vulnerable communities have immediate access to ample supplies of PPE to help slow the spread of the virus,” said Shachar Zahavi, founder and CEO of SmartAID.