Diversified miner BHP will invest more than A$3.3-million in funding through its Vital Resources Fund to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander controlled community health services across Australia, as part of new partnerships established to support communities through the Covid-19 pandemic.
Long-standing health inequities and high rates of chronic illness make Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples particularly vulnerable to Covid-19 infection, with BHP saying on Tuesday that the funding would support peak Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health bodies and local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medical services to continue to deliver comprehensive and culturally competent critical health care services, distribute supplies and educate communities about transmission risks associated with Covid-19.