Footballer Mohamed Salah donates ambulance centre to home town

Footballer Mohamed Salah has donated an ambulance centre to his home town of Nagrig, in northern Egypt, Arab News has reported. The centre is said to have cost just under $40,000 and will serve 30,000 local residents in the town; it is the latest in a string of charitable donations by the Liverpool Football Club and Egypt star player.

The mayor of Gharbia Governorate, Tarek Rahmy, presided over the opening of the centre last week in the presence of Salah’s father, Salah Ghaly, as well as the head of the governorate’s ambulance institute and a local representative of the Egyptian Ministry of Health.

In 2018, Salah apparently funded the construction of a girl’s school in Nagrig, after it came to light that local girls had to travel long distances to receive an education. He has already paid for a football pitch and gym for his old school.

READ: Egypt reopens airports and welcomes tourists to pyramids after COVID closure

Among his other philanthropic activities, the footballer and his father bought five acres of land in Gharbia and donated it to the local authorities to be used to build a sewage treatment plant to provide the region with clean water. Last year he donated around $3 million to Egypt’s National Cancer Institute after a terrorist car bomb at the hospital left 20 dead and 47 injured, and caused substantial damage.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Salah has donated thousands of tons of food through his personal charity to residents of his home town, including fresh meat.

Such kind gestures aren’t limited to Egypt, however. Last month Salah was pictured casually paying for local people’s fuel during a visit to a Sainsbury’s petrol station in Liverpool. The footballer, who was wearing Liverpool FC training kit at the time, covered the fuel costs of everyone filling up at the same time as him.

In February, the UN announced that Salah had been selected as the first ambassador for the Instant Network Schools programme, partially as a result of his involvement in several humanitarian and charity projects. The programme aims to connect young refugee and host country students to high quality online education. Salah is set to support the project through public appearances at schools participating in the initiative.

READ: Egypt calls on women to avoid pregnancy during coronavirus crisis