Month: August 2024

For the third year in a row, Forbes has recognized Gilead as one of America’s Best Employers For Women. At Gilead, we champion a culture where women can make a direct and meaningful impact and we offer an inclusive workplace and competitive benefits centered around wellbeing. Together, we drive innovation and further our mission to create a healthier world for all people.

About Gilead Sciences:

Gilead Sciences, Inc. is a research-based biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops and commercializes innovative medicines in areas of unmet medical need. The company strives to transform and simplify care for people with life-threatening illnesses around the world. Gilead has operations in more than 35 countries worldwide, with headquarters in Foster City, California. 

Originally published by Gilead Sciences

For the third year in a row, Forbes has recognized Gilead as one of America’s Best Employers For Women. At Gilead, we champion a culture where women can make a direct and meaningful impact and we offer an inclusive workplace and competitive benefits centered around wellbeing. Together, we drive innovation and further our mission to create a healthier world for all people.

About Gilead Sciences:

Gilead Sciences, Inc. is a research-based biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops and commercializes innovative medicines in areas of unmet medical need. The company strives to transform and simplify care for people with life-threatening illnesses around the world. Gilead has operations in more than 35 countries worldwide, with headquarters in Foster City, California. 

Originally published by Gilead Sciences

In 2023, alongside Parrish & Heimbecker, Limited, the Ontario Soil & Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA), and the Sustainable Food Lab, we launched an innovative pilot program to promote regenerative agriculture in wheat farming. This initiative aims to enhance land stewardship and encourage best management practices among farmers, boosting their resilience and productivity.

Focusing on practices like no-tillage, cover crops, and split nitrogen application, the program also provides technical assistance, network building, financial support, and data collection for farmers embarking on regenerative agriculture. This initiative highlights our commitment to sustainability and responsible sourcing, being an enabler to promote regenerative agriculture in our supply chain.

We look forward to applying the learnings from this wheat pilot to additional farmers in this growing region and creating new regenerative projects for other crops.

Our Sustainability Journey
At Griffith Foods, we are committed to driving positive impact through a regenerative mindset. Sustainability is connected to everything we do as a business, and by 2030, we are dedicated to significantly improving the future with a singular sustainable business strategy that we call our 2030 Aspirations. To learn more about Griffith Foods and its current sustainability efforts, visit them online and download the 2023 Sustainability Report.

About Griffith Foods
At Griffith Foods, our purpose defines who we are, what we do, and why we exist, highlighting what makes us distinct and authentic in the marketplace. We help our partners meet the evolving needs and desires of consumers in ways that respect and sustain the planet. Our care and creativity mean we’ll find the right mix of global reach and local impact to serve the earth and nourish all of us who call it home.

View original content here.

In 2023, alongside Parrish & Heimbecker, Limited, the Ontario Soil & Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA), and the Sustainable Food Lab, we launched an innovative pilot program to promote regenerative agriculture in wheat farming. This initiative aims to enhance land stewardship and encourage best management practices among farmers, boosting their resilience and productivity.

Focusing on practices like no-tillage, cover crops, and split nitrogen application, the program also provides technical assistance, network building, financial support, and data collection for farmers embarking on regenerative agriculture. This initiative highlights our commitment to sustainability and responsible sourcing, being an enabler to promote regenerative agriculture in our supply chain.

We look forward to applying the learnings from this wheat pilot to additional farmers in this growing region and creating new regenerative projects for other crops.

Our Sustainability Journey
At Griffith Foods, we are committed to driving positive impact through a regenerative mindset. Sustainability is connected to everything we do as a business, and by 2030, we are dedicated to significantly improving the future with a singular sustainable business strategy that we call our 2030 Aspirations. To learn more about Griffith Foods and its current sustainability efforts, visit them online and download the 2023 Sustainability Report.

About Griffith Foods
At Griffith Foods, our purpose defines who we are, what we do, and why we exist, highlighting what makes us distinct and authentic in the marketplace. We help our partners meet the evolving needs and desires of consumers in ways that respect and sustain the planet. Our care and creativity mean we’ll find the right mix of global reach and local impact to serve the earth and nourish all of us who call it home.

View original content here.

Dr. Summer Sitima is one of 24 siblings born to a Kenyan family in the 90s at the height of the HIV epidemic in Sub Saharan Africa. She vividly remembers the day in 1997 that she first learned one of her older sisters was living with HIV.

Still a child at the time, Summer recalls her sister’s husband pounding on the front door. In his arms, he held the frail body of her sister. She was suffering from advanced and untreated HIV that she acquired through her marriage as a teenager. Summer and her family cared for her until she passed away six weeks later.

“It forever changed my life and something shifted in my mind,” says Summer. “From that point on I became very interested in what healthcare looks like and how it can have an impact on people’s lives.”

Summer went on to become the first of her family’s 13 daughters to finish high school, and she then achieved another first when she graduated from college. She defied more odds as she remained unmarried throughout her teenage years and enrolled in medical school.

Today Summer is Gilead’s Commercial Operations Lead in South Africa, where 50% of new HIV diagnoses are in the adolescent population. In resource-limited countries in Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 25.6 million people are living with HIV and 91 million people are living with hepatitis B or C.

She credits her team’s commitment and resilience to helping erode societal and structural obstacles to reach those in the greatest need of care in the region.

“1990s era policies in parts of Africa, built upon fear-mongering and inaccurate information, means many born since 2000 have inadequate awareness of how HIV is acquired and how to access care,” Summer explains.

Gilead works with various partners to meet people where they are for testing and treatment and to raise awareness of transmission and reduce stigma. One such initiative in Nairobi trains barbers and hairdressers to become HIV educators.

“This is a space where people can find a path to care,” explains Summer, adding that “Barbershops and salons are places where conversations naturally occur, and people feel like they can trust who is speaking with them.” 

Gilead also sponsors a charity run in Nairobi where the proceeds help students with the cost of medical school at the University of Nairobi. There, medical students learn about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in a fun way: As part of their education they host game nights with quizzes and also post social media messages to raise awareness about STIs. “It creates a boomerang effect as the info is more widely shared among their peers and then in turn it helps educate the community,” explains Summer.

Another innovative program centers around the simple act of tree planting. During times of extreme drought or flooding, people often can’t get to health services, making any sort of testing and treatment difficult. Summer explains how providing vegetation helps with water drainage and improves the ecosystem so people can gain better access to care services and students can get to school. “Girls are most at risk of dropping out during these periods and often become pregnant before finishing their schooling,” she says.

It’s been more than 25 years since her sister passed away, and Summer recognizes that women like her sister now have better information and access to care, in part because of the work of organizations like Gilead.

“I’m motivated every day to create new possibilities for women, like my sister,” explains Summer. “We are changing the stories of mothers, daughters, sisters, wives and young people in Africa, and around the world.”

Originally published by Gilead Sciences

Dr. Summer Sitima is one of 24 siblings born to a Kenyan family in the 90s at the height of the HIV epidemic in Sub Saharan Africa. She vividly remembers the day in 1997 that she first learned one of her older sisters was living with HIV.

Still a child at the time, Summer recalls her sister’s husband pounding on the front door. In his arms, he held the frail body of her sister. She was suffering from advanced and untreated HIV that she acquired through her marriage as a teenager. Summer and her family cared for her until she passed away six weeks later.

“It forever changed my life and something shifted in my mind,” says Summer. “From that point on I became very interested in what healthcare looks like and how it can have an impact on people’s lives.”

Summer went on to become the first of her family’s 13 daughters to finish high school, and she then achieved another first when she graduated from college. She defied more odds as she remained unmarried throughout her teenage years and enrolled in medical school.

Today Summer is Gilead’s Commercial Operations Lead in South Africa, where 50% of new HIV diagnoses are in the adolescent population. In resource-limited countries in Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 25.6 million people are living with HIV and 91 million people are living with hepatitis B or C.

She credits her team’s commitment and resilience to helping erode societal and structural obstacles to reach those in the greatest need of care in the region.

“1990s era policies in parts of Africa, built upon fear-mongering and inaccurate information, means many born since 2000 have inadequate awareness of how HIV is acquired and how to access care,” Summer explains.

Gilead works with various partners to meet people where they are for testing and treatment and to raise awareness of transmission and reduce stigma. One such initiative in Nairobi trains barbers and hairdressers to become HIV educators.

“This is a space where people can find a path to care,” explains Summer, adding that “Barbershops and salons are places where conversations naturally occur, and people feel like they can trust who is speaking with them.” 

Gilead also sponsors a charity run in Nairobi where the proceeds help students with the cost of medical school at the University of Nairobi. There, medical students learn about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in a fun way: As part of their education they host game nights with quizzes and also post social media messages to raise awareness about STIs. “It creates a boomerang effect as the info is more widely shared among their peers and then in turn it helps educate the community,” explains Summer.

Another innovative program centers around the simple act of tree planting. During times of extreme drought or flooding, people often can’t get to health services, making any sort of testing and treatment difficult. Summer explains how providing vegetation helps with water drainage and improves the ecosystem so people can gain better access to care services and students can get to school. “Girls are most at risk of dropping out during these periods and often become pregnant before finishing their schooling,” she says.

It’s been more than 25 years since her sister passed away, and Summer recognizes that women like her sister now have better information and access to care, in part because of the work of organizations like Gilead.

“I’m motivated every day to create new possibilities for women, like my sister,” explains Summer. “We are changing the stories of mothers, daughters, sisters, wives and young people in Africa, and around the world.”

Originally published by Gilead Sciences