Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On June 12, 2020, the Chinese Embassy handed over a batch of medical supplies to Ecuadorian officials. The donated supplies were to be distributed to various institutions around Ecuador, including the Ecuadorian National Assembly, the Ecuadorian Red Cross Society, the General Hospital of the Armed Forces, the Ecuador-China Chamber of Commerce, Medios Públicos, the Quito Unámonos Association for People with Disabilities, and the Andean Parliament. In addition, supplies would be distributed to the following ten provinces: Bolívar, Carchi, Cotopaxi, Esmeraldas, Imbabura, Loja, Manabí, Orellana, Pastaza, and Pichincha. More specifically, the materials to Orellana went to the following health centers: Pompeya, La Joya de los Sachas, Ávila Huiruno, San José de Dahuano. The materials themselves included 50,000 medical masks, 20,000 KN95 masks, 700 suits, and 700 protective glasses. Telediario reported that the entire donation was worth USD 84,000. Of these, 2000 masks went to Medios Públicos. 35,000 masks, 55 protective suits, and 55 protective goggles went to the National Assembly. 1000 medical masks, 1000 KN95 masks, 50 suits, and 50 protective glasses went to Esmeraldas. Lastly, 2,000 surgical masks, 2,000 KN95 masks, 50 protective suits, and 50 protective goggles to the province of Manabí. The number of each item provided to the remaining organizations and provinces is unknown.
Staff comments
1. Sources from the Chinese Embassy in Ecuador do not include Medios Públicos (the company in charge of managing state media in Ecuador) as one of the institutions that received supplies, while Telediario (Ecuador state-affiliated media) does. 2. Harvard's Mask Diplomacy dataset estimates the donation's transaction amount to be USD 14,000. However, the number reported by Ecuador state-affiliated media outlet Telediario, USD 84,000, has been recorded as the transaction amount. This is insofar as the Harvard dataset uses a standard estimate for all of one category of medical supply (i.e. USD 0.5 per N95 mask), whereas the number reported is specific to this donation. 3. It has been assumed that the supplies donated to Manabí (discussed in articles/Tweets about a videoconference between Chinese Ambassador Chen Guoyou and officials from Manabí) are a subset of this donation. This is insofar as (1) the materials said to be donated to Manabí are the exact same kinds of materials (masks, KN 95 masks, suits, and gloves); (2) the amount of each material donated matches expectations regarding what Manabí's portion of the larger donation would likely look like (Manabí's portion accounts for about 4% of the surgical masks, 10% of the KN95 masks, 7% of the goggles, and 7% of the gloves); (3) the timing of the videoconference only a few days after the larger handover ceremony (June 12 to June 18). 3. It has been assumed that the supplies donated to Esmeraldas that are described in the province's BOLETÍN Nª 510 are also part of this larger donation. This is for the same/similar reasons as the supplies donated to Manabí.