Idris Elba and his wife launch a $40 million fund to help those affected by the Coronavirus.
Only a few weeks ago, Idris Elba revealed he and his wife contracted the Coronavirus. He says the experience was “definitely scary and unsettling and nervous.”
“You know, everyone’s sort of feeling the way we have been feeling, but it has definitely been sort of just a complete upheaval,” he told the Associated Press late last week.
He says the COVID-19 Pandemic is a remind “the world doesn’t tick on your time.”
“I think that the world should take a week of quarantine every year just to remember this time. Remember each other. I really do,” he said.
The actor spoke with the Associated Press as they started an initiative with the United Nations to help farmers and food producers in rural areas who were impacted by COVID-19. Idris and his wife Dhowre Elba are U.N. Goodwill Ambassadors and joined with the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development to start the new $40 million fund.
“People forget that 80 percent of the poor population live in these rural areas,” Dhowre Elba said. “What we are really worried about at the moment, and why we are launching this fund, is that those people are being forgotten.”
“If you imagine being in a village where no one even knows the name of your village or your population, and that you live in a slum where there is one room and six of you live in it,” he said, “social distancing is almost laughable.”
Elba said he was concerned about the impact the Coronavirus will have in countries that are already struggling. “We have to think about forward planning. What’s the fallout going to be?” he said.
Elba and his wife were in New Mexico recovering while he was filming a new movie. The plan is to return to London as soon as possible. He says he had to miss his 6-year old son’s birthday because of the quarantine.
“We’ve been fortunate,” added Elba. “We have been staying in a lovely place that’s been very comfortable for the time. But we’re looking forward to going home.”
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