US heavy metal band Metallica have donated €250,000 for the construction of a paediatric hospital in Romania.
US heavy metal band Metallica have donated €250,000 for the construction of a paediatric hospital in Romania.
The band's donation to the Romanian association Daruieste Viata, who is collecting funds to build the country's first paediatric oncology hospital, came ahead of their sold-out concert on Wednesday, said the association in a press release.
"Our goal is to bring a bit of joy to sick children, just like Metallica makes their fans happy across the world," Carmen Uscatu, one of the association's founders told the AFP.
The metal outfit made the donation through their non-profit foundation All Within My Hands, it said in a statement.
The hospital's construction began in mid-2018 in Bucharest and is one of the few to be built in the last three decades. The project will likely be completed next year, with donations from 260,000 individuals and bit fewer than 2,000 companies so far.
Romania, one of the EU's most corrupt countries according to Transparency International, struggles to modernise its infrastructure despite billions of euros in EU funding. The current government has repeatedly postponed plans to build three new regional hospitals for which the EU has allocated funds.