Idris Elba, wife to help others post COVID-19 diagnosis

Even though they only had mild symptoms, Idris Elba says he and his wife had their lives “turned around” after contracting the coronavirus, calling the experience “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 said last week.

But the British actor feels that there are life lessons to be learnt, and the pandemic serves as a reminder that “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 British actor and his model wife, Sabrina Dhowre Elba, spoke to the AP as they began a push with the United Nations to lessen the impact of COVID-19 on farmers and food producers in rural areas.

“People forget that 80 per cent 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.”

In their new roles as UN Goodwill Ambassadors, Elba and his wife, have joined forces with the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to launch the new $40 million fund.

The actor believes people in rural and poor areas are likely to suffer more in the pandemic.

Both Elba and his wife have roots in Africa; Elba’s parents are from Sierra Leone and Ghana, while Dhowre Elba is of Somali descent. The pair went to Sierra Leone in December with the United Nations to see how IFAD has assisted people there.

Elba said he was particularly concerned as to what the coronavirus pandemic could do on the continent in countries already suffering economically.