Admiral Donates to UNICEF, Despite Charity’s Chequered Past

The UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) has received a generous donation from Welsh financial services company, Admiral, in support of its efforts to tackle the ongoing devastation being caused by COVID-19 in India. Admiral, which employs 700 people in Delhi, has made a £1 million donation to UNICEF UK. The contribution will be used to ease the enormous strain on health and critical care facilities in Delhi and other affected states in India.

The move is surprising as UNICEF is a charity with a chequered past, including allegations of fraud, sexual exploitation and a culture of bullying carried out in the past, by some of its senior staff. It is also a children’s charity, and as Covid primarily affects older people aged 60 plus, perhaps a donation to a charity concerned with helping older people might have offered more direct support.

The donation is from the Admiral Covid-19 Support Fund, a £6 million commitment by the company to support the communities where it has offices. Admiral’s funding will help provide access to critical oxygen supplies and increase rapid COVID-19 testing capacity. The company’s purpose is to help more people to look after their future, and this donation is a direct and natural expression of this purpose.

Although headquartered in South Wales where it employs over 7,500 people, there is a further 3,500 Admiral employees around the globe including 700 in its Delhi office. The company values employee wellbeing and has put numerous initiatives in place to support its Delhi colleagues including funding vaccine costs, reimbursing the cost of COVID-19 tests, providing financial support, and offering medical and counselling services.

Cristina Nestares, CEO of UK Insurance at Admiral said;

“Our thoughts are with everyone in India facing difficultly during the new wave of the pandemic. As well as supporting our colleagues, we wanted to help the wider community in India too. The work UNICEF is doing on the ground is making a big difference and we felt our donation was the best way we could support the tremendous effort there. We hope our contribution to UNICEF can help the relief efforts and support the wider community in the fight against COVID-19.”