Tag: 3BL

Mastercard

When Doreen Dabi-Diamond, aka Dabi, walked into her first professional gaming competition and realized she was the only woman there, she was not fazed in the least. Having spent her life in Ghana as the one girl on the basketball court and in engineering classes, she was used to lone-female status.

Dabi was also used to proving the male doubters wrong. She did it again at the Volta FIFA Tournament, where she beat out many of the top players — a performance impressive enough to catch the attention of the president of Ghana’s Esports Association, who got her involved in the organization.

Recruiting Dabi was a wise move. Esports is a rapidly growing field, valued at more than $1 billion, with a global audience of 532 million. Even though nearly half of all gamers (as well as esports fans) are female, the vast majority of professional gamers are men. If the industry wants to grow, that needs to change.

“More representation at the upper echelons creates role models to inspire young women,” says Mastercard’s Raja Rajamannar, who launched the Mastercard Gamer Academy last year, “and could help reduce the gender bias that has historically plagued the larger gaming community, fostering a more inclusive environment for everyone.”

This first-of-its-kind program gives 10 gamers from around the world — seven of whom are women — access to high-profile esports events, esports professionals, and training and workshops to help them develop careers in gaming.

Through its partnerships with G2 and Riot Games, Mastercard Gamer Academy students, including Dabi, spend three semesters learning about different gaming career paths, as well as traveling to competitions and esports facilities around the world, like Valorant Champions Seoul, underway now, reportedly with record viewership, and the G2 Facility in Berlin, to see the industry in action, be it via playing, producing or broadcasting.

Dabi was accepted to the academy earlier this year. There she joined Meg Cabras, a Floridian originally from the Philippines who dreams of being a CEO at an esports company. While both are lifelong gamers with proven track records, they both hesitated to apply.

“I wasn’t sure if I was good enough,” Cabras says. “They only took 10 people around the globe. But I knew I would kick myself if I didn’t try. When I got the acceptance email, I just started crying.”

For Dabi, the hesitation stemmed from grief. Her younger sister had recently died from a sudden illness. When Dabi tried to record her application video, her face was so swollen with tears she couldn’t send it. But eventually, with encouragement from her partner, she applied. When she got accepted, she says, “I knew my kid sister was watching over me, because she knows how passionate I am about esports.”

At the academy’s first in-person session, Dabi and Cabras became fast friends with each other and with the other five women in the program, finding a kinship that’s powerful in this male-dominated world. But Dabi and Cabras have also found strong female communities playing Valorant, a game whose championship they will attend with the academy this month.

“The more you let people feel seen, the more love and loyalty they’re going to give the game.”

Meg Cabras

Part of what draws women to Valorant is leaders like Anna Donlon. As senior vice president and head of Valorant Studios, as well as a key Valorant producer, Donlon sets the tone for the entire franchise. She takes an active role in seeing that women in the community feel welcome and safe.

“Half of gamers are women, and esports is global, reaching every corner of the world. So esports should reflect that player base,” Cabras says. “The more you let people feel seen, the more love and loyalty they’re going to give the game.”

Armed with their newfound cohort and what they’ve learned at the academy, both women are now formulating their future career paths. Cabras — who runs her own clothing business while also working in marketing for NASCAR — has taken advantage of the sessions to talk to CEOs at G2 and Riot Games about how she can follow in their footsteps.

Dabi, meanwhile, is emerging as an avid ambassador for esports in Ghana. In addition to serving as secretary general of the Esports Association of Ghana, she’s launching a talent and events management company to create more tournament opportunities for women there.

“I realized that this is my mission: to grab all the knowledge that I’ve gained from the academy and use it to make our esports industry ecosystem in Ghana better,” she says.

Now, as the academy students prepare for a trip to Seoul for the 2024 Valorant Champions tournament and another for League of Legends World Championship in London this autumn, the women are brimming with confidence.

“Trust me, in this academy, all ten of us are amazing people who are going to go on to do great things,” Dabi says. “You need to watch out for us. Because we are going to make you all proud.”

Originally published by Mastercard 

Follow along Mastercard’s journey to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere.

Extreme heat can increase electricity use and costs, and the past two summers have brought record-level temperatures and high electricity usage by our customers. Entergy New Orleans and Entergy Louisiana are committed to helping our customers stay cool and save money this summer with bill management tools and customer assistance events.

Entergy’s newly launched online Bill Toolkit connects customers to bill management, energy efficiency and financial assistance resources. This new resource helps our customers explore simple ways they can lower their electricity use and costs.

“In the face of extreme temperatures, we’re doing all we can to keep costs down for customers with some of the lowest electricity rates in the country,” said Steven Benyard, Vice President of Reliability for Entergy Louisiana. “To help our customers take control of their budget and save money in extreme heat, we are connecting them with tools to monitor their energy use, manage their bills and find financial assistance.”

Track your energy use

Bill management tools like myAdvisor empower our customers to set electricity usage alerts and monitor how much energy they use each day. Tracking electricity use over time can help customers identify habits that contribute to higher use and budget their monthly expenses. With their myAdvisor dashboard, customers have access to usage and cost details, bill history, bill projections and analyzer tools and more.

Manage your bills your way

Entergy offers several flexible payment options so customers can choose when, where and how they receive their bills.

Pick-A-Date allows customers to pay their bills when it works best for them.Level Billing allows customers to “level out” seasonal energy use fluctuations, making their bills more consistent every month.PaperFREE billing allows customers to get their bills emailed as soon as they post and instant access to two years of billing history.AutoPay allows customers to avoid late fees, writing checks and paying for postage by having bills automatically deduct from their bank accounts.

Entergy encourages customers who may need additional payment options to reach out. To see if customers automatically qualify for deferred payment arrangements or payment extensions, they can visit our mobile app or myEntergy.

Find financial assistance

For customers needing assistance to pay their bills, Entergy is here to help. Throughout this summer, Entergy is implementing a series of measures through its “Beat the Heat” program focused on helping our low-income customers and communities stay cool and pay their bills. The program provides bill payment assistance, fans and energy efficiency kits and support from local community partners to help hundreds of residential customers across the state.

In addition, Entergy partners with local and state organizations to connect qualifying customers with financial assistance including:

The Power to Care program provides emergency bill payment assistance to older adults and customers with disabilities.Single Stop makes it easy for customers to quickly and confidentially check their eligibility for federal, state and local financial assistance.Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program provides financial assistance for energy bills and other energy-related expenses.

For more ways to save energy and money, customers can visit BillToolkit.entergy.com.

Contact 
Susan Henry|504-670-3613|shenry4@entergy.com

Sofidel

The financial industry is changing and is committed to improving transparency in the industry as well as directing practitioners toward greater integration of sustainability risks within investment processes. Transparency is becoming a pre-requisite. In fact, completeness and quality of information, definition of the methodologies used to process it, and clarity in communication are required. To strengthen the confidence not only of investors but also of individual savers, the EU is engaged in a review of sustainable finance regulations such as the creation of a common classification system for sustainable economic activities and taxonomy to clearly define which activities are considered sustainable.

Indeed, an important goal is to strengthen the reliability and comparability of information. For example, for combating the climate crisis, indices have been introduced to provide accurate indications of investment opportunities and risks and, with the introduction of a common European standard for green bond issuers who wish to use the  “European Green Bonds” designation, market transparency and comparability of these financial products will increase.

The recent EU directive on sustainability reporting – Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) – also aims for transparency to improve sustainability reporting and to recognize the natural connection between ESG results and those reported in traditional statutory financial statements.

Read more about topics related to environmental and social sustainability, themes and projects close to us in terms of culture and corporate modus operandi on our Soft&Green blog.

More than four years ago we made a commitment — through The Clorox Company Foundation — to help fight racism and inequality. Some of our financial commitment goes toward supporting Equal Justice Works fellows like Darby Aono-Shek. Darby is working with UnCommon Law to help older incarcerated people, many of whom are Black and Latinx, challenge their illegal parole denials.

Tell me a little bit about the organization where you work and what it does.

I work at an organization called UnCommon Law. We’re based in Oakland, and we fight to ensure that people who are incarcerated in California have access to healing, justice and effective legal representation as they seek release through the parole hearing process. Our attorneys use trauma-informed legal counseling to unpack the underlying factors that contributed to a person’s crime and help them prepare a safe pathway home from prison.

In addition to representing people at parole hearings, UnCommon Law uses litigation to challenge illegal parole denials and address systemic issues within the parole system. We also partner with legislators, community members, impacted families, and loved ones to support legislation that advances the freedom and well-being of incarcerated people.

How did you become involved in this field?

I’ve always known that I wanted to work with people in prison, but I didn’t know anything about California’s parole process until my first year of law school, when I took a class taught by UnCommon Law founder and executive director Keith Wattley.

It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with UnCommon Law’s work. As part of Keith’s class, each student was paired with an incarcerated person who was navigating the parole process. I was in awe of the strength, courage and vulnerability that people showed going through the process. I thought, “How many attorneys get to learn from and feel inspired by their clients every day? I’d be the luckiest attorney in the world.”

I interned with UnCommon Law during my second year of law school, and I joined the team full-time as an Equal Justice Works legal fellow in 2022.

What are some examples of the challenges that UnCommon Law’s clients have faced?

In California, the parole board holds an extraordinary amount of power over people’s lives with limited oversight to ensure that it wields that power legally. As a result, in some situations the parole board denies parole for illegal reasons, keeping people in prison for years beyond when the law says they should have been released.

For example, the parole board denied parole to a 69-year-old woman suffering from Parkinson’s, early dementia and memory loss from an assault where she was knocked unconscious. Due to her memory issues, she often took pauses while answering the parole board’s questions. The parole board denied her parole, claiming that her difficulty answering questions was proof that she was “manipulative” and “lacking in sincerity.”

In California, parole denials must be challenged through habeas corpus petitions (a legal challenge to one’s imprisonment), but there is no right to habeas counsel for these cases. As a result, pro se litigants (people who represent themselves without an attorney) provide a primary check on the parole board, but systemic barriers and a lack of support make it virtually impossible for most people to do so.

How has your work addressed those challenges?

My fellowship is focused on helping older people who are incarcerated challenge their illegal parole denials. I’m taking a two-pronged approach to accomplishing this: 1) assuming a caseload through direct representation; and 2) focusing on the many people who have been denied parole but don’t have access to counsel.

I’m developing a comprehensive guide to filing habeas petitions without an attorney that will be available to people across California prisons. That way, more people can feel empowered to hold the parole board accountable, even if they can’t afford an attorney.

In line with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI’s) commitment to provide the global common language for sustainability reporting, seven translations of GRI 14: Mining Sector 2024 have been published. In addition to English, the Mining Standard can be freely downloaded in Simplified Chinese, French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish. Further translations – in Italian, Arabic and Traditional Chinese – will be made available soon.

GRI 14, the first global transparency standard for responsible mining, addresses the pressing need for consistent, granular and complete reporting on the sector’s wide-ranging impacts and contributions to sustainable development. Launched in February of this year, it is the fourth addition to GRI’s Sector Standards series and enters into effect for reporting on 1 January 2026.

Applicable to any organization operating in mining and quarrying, GRI 14 enables them to use a common set of metrics to disclose their impacts. The Mining Standard:

Sheds light on the dual nature of the mining sector: providing essential minerals and metals that society relies on, while having significant impacts on the environment, communities and workers.Sets expectations for site-level transparency that reflect local impacts, to help stakeholders assess impacts and risks by location and specific minerals.Covers critical themes that range from emissions to waste, human rights to land and resource rights, climate change to biodiversity, anti-corruption to community engagement.Introduces three topics not previously addressed by GRI, yet specifically relevant to mining firms: tailings management, artisanal and small-scale mining, and operating in conflict zones.

GRI thanks the peer reviewers who contributed their time on a voluntary basis to ensure the accuracy and usability of these translations, expanding the accessibility of the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting standards.

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is the independent, international organization that helps businesses and other organizations take responsibility for their impacts, by providing the global common language to report those impacts. The GRI Standards are the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting standards, which are developed through a multi-stakeholder process and provided as a free public good.

WASHINGTON, August 30, 2024 /3BL/ – The World Environment Center (WEC) has released a summary of its recent Members Forum on the status of the Global Plastics Treaty. The discussion, which took place online on June 26, included 19 of WEC member companies representing various industries, and featured Dr. Jihane Ball, Lead Global Sustainability Director at Dow, who provided background into the treaty.

The Global Plastics Treaty was approved at the fifth session of the UN Environmental Assembly in 2022, a historic resolution seeking to end plastics pollution worldwide. Between 2001 and 2019, plastics production worldwide has doubled, with only 7% being recycled and 15% leaking into nature. Due to the widespread impact of plastics pollution, a global approach like this treaty is necessary to address this issue.

During the Members Forum, Frank Werner, Director of Global Thought Leadership and WEC Europe, moderated a discussion with WEC members and Dr. Ball about the role of industry in the Global Plastics Treaty, as well as the need to educate the business sector about how global companies can invest in circularity. The newly released summary highlights four key insights corporations can gain from the conversation, as well as resources for further education:

The most effective agreement will focus on areas with the most alignment, e.g. to address waste management infrastructure in areas where it is lacking.For the global plastics treaty to be effective, it must include as many countries as possible, including high plastics producers and countries with high amounts of leakage into nature.Circularity is a valuable solution to plastics pollution, and a well-designed global agreement could be a catalyst for waste reduction.Several organizations that produce, use and recycle plastics have partnered under the Global Partners for Plastics Circularity to educate negotiators about efficient strategies to make the agreement effective,

Read the full summary here.

About WEC:

The World Environment Center advances sustainable development through corporate business practices. Headquartered in Washington, D.C. with offices in Europe and Latin America, WEC advances corporate sustainability leadership through its global executive roundtable on key challenges and opportunities, builds capacity of small enterprises in emerging markets, and honors industry excellence through its annual Gold Medal Award. WEC is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization. For more information, please visit www.wec.org.

WASHINGTON, August 30, 2024 /3BL/ – The World Environment Center (WEC) has released a summary of its recent Members Forum on the status of the Global Plastics Treaty. The discussion, which took place online on June 26, included 19 of WEC member companies representing various industries, and featured Dr. Jihane Ball, Lead Global Sustainability Director at Dow, who provided background into the treaty.

The Global Plastics Treaty was approved at the fifth session of the UN Environmental Assembly in 2022, a historic resolution seeking to end plastics pollution worldwide. Between 2001 and 2019, plastics production worldwide has doubled, with only 7% being recycled and 15% leaking into nature. Due to the widespread impact of plastics pollution, a global approach like this treaty is necessary to address this issue.

During the Members Forum, Frank Werner, Director of Global Thought Leadership and WEC Europe, moderated a discussion with WEC members and Dr. Ball about the role of industry in the Global Plastics Treaty, as well as the need to educate the business sector about how global companies can invest in circularity. The newly released summary highlights four key insights corporations can gain from the conversation, as well as resources for further education:

The most effective agreement will focus on areas with the most alignment, e.g. to address waste management infrastructure in areas where it is lacking.For the global plastics treaty to be effective, it must include as many countries as possible, including high plastics producers and countries with high amounts of leakage into nature.Circularity is a valuable solution to plastics pollution, and a well-designed global agreement could be a catalyst for waste reduction.Several organizations that produce, use and recycle plastics have partnered under the Global Partners for Plastics Circularity to educate negotiators about efficient strategies to make the agreement effective,

Read the full summary here.

About WEC:

The World Environment Center advances sustainable development through corporate business practices. Headquartered in Washington, D.C. with offices in Europe and Latin America, WEC advances corporate sustainability leadership through its global executive roundtable on key challenges and opportunities, builds capacity of small enterprises in emerging markets, and honors industry excellence through its annual Gold Medal Award. WEC is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization. For more information, please visit www.wec.org.

If you ask Anne Bertelsmann where she’s from and how she ended up at Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC), be prepared for an intriguing story. As a principal process safety engineer at MPC and Distinguished Examination Service Award winner for the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES), she’s been dedicated to the profession of engineering for most of her life.

Bertelsmann was born in Harare, Zimbabwe, where her parents were working temporarily. She grew up in Berlin, Germany, and spent a year as an exchange student in Owasso, Oklahoma. She returned to Germany to finish high school and attended the Technical University of Berlin. That’s when she witnessed the fall of the Berlin wall.

“I attended President Ronald Reagan’s famous 1987 speech in Berlin,” said Bertelsmann. “‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!’ It may have been over 35 years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday.”

After two years at the Technical University of Berlin, she transferred to the University of Karlsruhe, where she earned her undergraduate degree in Process Engineering. In 1993, she moved to the U.S. for graduate school at the University of Rochester in New York.

“I wanted to experience a different academic environment and broaden my horizons,” said Bertelsmann. “The University of Rochester offered me both, and I was excited to immerse myself in a new culture and challenge myself in a new setting.”

Life is full of surprises

Bertelsmann originally planned to return to Germany after earning her Master of Science degree in 1996 and doctoral degree in Chemical Engineering in 1997, but fate had other ideas. While attending graduate school in New York, she met her future husband, Igor Kostjuhin.

“Life is full of surprises, and any one event can change its course,” said Bertelsmann.

Her first job after graduate school was at a Bayer chemical plant in Baytown, Texas. The company then moved her to their pharmaceutical division in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she worked with blood plasma products. In 2007, she moved back to Houston, Texas, to join her husband. She was hired by BP at its Texas City facility. Her first role was as the Technical Resource Manager, responsible for hiring and training engineers and managing the intern program.

In 2013, MPC purchased the facility, now known as the Galveston Bay refinery. Bertelsmann continued in the process safety group, where she helped develop MPC’s Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA) program and wrote the standard for it. In her current role as the Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) and LOPA Coordinator, she supports sites with conducting safety studies.

“The Refining Process Safety Management (PSM) group provides tools, consultation, audits and general support for our sites company-wide, helping them develop the necessary safeguards for various process hazards while also training engineers in hazard recognition.”

Leaving her mark

In 2023, Bertelsmann’s expertise was recognized by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES), earning her the Distinguished Examination Service Award for her dedicated service to NCEES and the engineering profession.

NCEES praised her ongoing commitment to advancing engineering licensure. She joined the Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) Chemical Exam Development Committee in 2001 and began serving in leadership roles in 2008. For the past 15 years, she has held various leadership positions with the nonprofit.

“I didn’t really choose to become a member,” Bertelsmann said. “They found me.”

After graduating with her engineering degree, she aimed to become a licensed professional engineer (PE) to demonstrate competency and expand her future options. While taking the PE exam, she encountered a multiple-choice question with what she could only conclude were all incorrect answers.

“I wrote a letter to NCEES afterward asking them to review the answer in question,” she recalled.

She never received a direct response to her letter, but a few months later, she received an invitation from the exam committee to attend their next meeting.

“My assumption was accurate,” said Bertelsmann. “That questioning along with my high exam score led to me receiving the invite. It also demonstrated to me that NCEES takes examinee feedback seriously, even if it’s their policy not to respond to individual examinees.”

That began her journey with NCEES, traveling to South Carolina for her first exam committee meeting without knowing what to expect.

“I discovered that the committee meets twice a year to write and pre-test questions for the Chemical PE Exam,” she said. “I met engineers who loved taking the PE exam repeatedly. That’s when I realized these were my kind of people.”

That was over 20 years ago, and she has no plans to stop.

“I’ve learned a lot about writing effective test questions and the field of psychometrics (measuring the mind), which validates test questions based on candidate performance, and I find it fascinating,” said Bertelsmann. “I’ve also formed close friendships with other engineers on the committee.”

Her honor from NCEES also acknowledges her advocacy for diversity among committee members.

“We strive for diversity in industry type, employment (public, private, government and academia), subject matter expertise, geographic location, education, gender and more. This ensures the exam isn’t biased, and everyone feels welcome.”

She applies this inclusive outlook to her daily life.

“Solving big problems benefits from thinking outside the box, which isn’t always easy,” she noted. “A diverse team provides the largest box to think in.”

Getting Personal

Family life: Bertelsmann and her husband, Igor Kostjuhin, recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. They have four children: Karina, 23, who works at NASA in Maryland; Mark, 22, a student at the University of New Orleans; Dennis, 20, at the University of Texas—Austin; and Lara, 16, a senior at League City High School.

“It’s been so rewarding to watch my children grow and follow their own paths just like I did,” said Bertelsmann. “It’s also nice to have three of them close by, since the rest of my family is still in Germany.”

Hobbies: Rowing, sewing (and other crafts), cooking and baking, traveling

Fun facts: She learned figure skating while in college. “While living and working in Houston, I trained with a coach, participated in recreational competitions and moonlighted as a figure skating instructor. I also have a black belt in Karate. I started Karate with my kids when they were younger and stuck with it after they quit.”

RMI recently released GridUp, a publicly accessible, state-of-the-art tool that helps utilities forecast when and where energy and power demands will materialize from vehicle electrification. The GridUp tool can forecast electric vehicle (EV) power needs at the census-block group level, arming decision makers for the first time with the detailed information they need to quickly, effectively, and confidently upgrade the grid to meet the increasing demand for EV charging infrastructure.

“Fleet electrification requires the cooperation of an entire ecosystem — utilities are as much a part of it as vehicle manufacturers, fleet owners, and charging infrastructure providers.” said Pat Donlon, vice president of Global Vehicles, FedEx. “You can order all the electric vehicles in the world over the next few years, but none of that matters if the grid capacity isn’t there to support charging them. That’s why supporting a tool like GridUp is so vital to help utilities understand and plan for increased electricity needs from having more personal and commercial EVs on the road.”

The transportation sector is already working toward electrification. However, existing US grid infrastructure will be insufficient to support additional electricity demand from future EV charging needs and needed upgrades have long lead times to deploy. This poses a key barrier for fleet operators and charging companies, as well as an emergent challenge for utilities and infrastructure planners: a lack of certainty regarding the specific charging needs EVs will have — when, where, and how much.

“One of the most consequential barriers to widespread transportation electrification is the grid’s ability to reliably provide the power required for vehicle charging,” said Clay Stranger, managing director at RMI. “GridUp addresses this barrier by projecting when and where EVs will need power with granular detail, enabling utilities, cities, and states to make informed planning and investment decisions. This will help provide charging that is equitable, ubiquitous, and available where and when it is needed most.”

For example, GridUp can be used to help utilities forecast:

Which areas will see the largest amounts of EV growth, and what will drive that growth.Areas with a high concentration of medium- and heavy-duty electric truck activity are likely to see some of the largest new demands for electricity.The neighborhood of Cornell in southeast Atlanta, Georgia – where multiple logistics companies have distribution centers or freight depots – may see new loads of up to 7 MW, approximately as much power as the Atlanta Falcons’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium during an NFL gameHow much energy will be needed to support charging in a given area.For example, Grid Up predicts EV charging in Allegheny County, which contains Pittsburgh, will require the equivalent of almost 68,000 single family homes-worth of energy by 2035.For context, Pittsburgh currently has about 160,000 housing units.What kinds of charging locations will need to be built in specific areas.For example, GridUp demonstrates that Crown Heights, a relatively dense part of Brooklyn, mostly requires chargers in public locations and at multi-family homes, while Kew Gardens Hills, a less dense neighborhood of Queens, requires chargers at single-family homes and public locations.

RMI has piloted the GridUp tool since 2021, gaining important insights from utilities and regulators on how to provide the best data for proactive investments in the grid. Below are two quotes from two of the beta users of the GridUp tool:

“RMI’s modeling and load forecasting support allowed us to get a window into a future that will be largely decarbonized, which armed us with the information we needed to develop projects to meet the near-, mid-, and long-term transport electrification needs of key corridors in our service territory.” -Brian Wilkie, Director, Clean Energy Development – Transportation, National Grid NY.

“RMI’s GridUp tool helps us and our local partners make stronger decisions about budget requests, program design, grid distribution plans, and EV-ready building codes. In Washington, we take pride in our role as innovators, and we are pleased to see the cutting-edge work behind our Transportation Electrification Strategy scaled up to a national tool.”

-Steven Hershkowitz, Managing Director for Clean Transportation at the Washington State Department of Commerce.

To learn more about the issues GridUp addresses, check out RMI’s Electrification 101 series.

Click here to learn about FedEx Cares, our global community engagement program.

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Abdelrahman was born in September 2023. The Gaza escalation displaced him and his family from the north of Gaza to Deir Al-Balah, then to Rafah, and then back to Deir Al-Balah again, where he now lives with his family and nine siblings in a makeshift tent made of nylon sheets.

Last month, Abdelrahman’s temperature spiked, followed by vomiting and extreme lethargy. Worried this was not an ordinary illness, his mother worked with health officials to get a stool sample sent to Jordan for testing, and when it came back, the Health Ministry told her that her son was sick with polio. He was the first person to contract polio in Gaza in twenty-five years.

A uniquely deadly virus in a uniquely vulnerable place

The polio virus can cause irreversible paralysis within hours, and it poses a severe threat in Gaza, where high malnutrition rates and toxic stress levels increase children’s vulnerability to infection.

Humanitarian operations across the region are severely hindered by bombardments and the obstruction of critical aid supplies at Israeli-controlled crossing points. Essential refrigerated trucks needed to transport vaccines have repeatedly been denied entry.

Aid agencies and medical professionals are now urgently calling for a humanitarian pause in the conflict to enable the administration of life-saving vaccinations to approximately 640,000 vulnerable children under the age of 10. The appeal follows the Gaza Ministry of Health’s confirmation of Abdelrahman’s case, with additional suspected cases now emerging.

(Update: On Thursday, August 29, CNN reported, “Israel has agreed to a series of pauses in fighting in Gaza in September to allow young children in the enclave to be vaccinated for polio, according to United Nations and Israeli officials.”)

After Abdelrahman’s test came back positive, his mother immediately isolated him from his siblings, who later received the vaccine. But isolating in a tent in an overcrowded displacement site is near impossible.

The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed last month that the poliovirus was also detected in sewage samples from Khan Younis and Deir Al-Balah, and health officials are raising alarms about the potentially catastrophic consequences if a vaccination campaign cannot be carried out immediately.

Nahed Abu Iyada, CARE West Bank and Gaza’s Health Program Field Officer, warned of the impending disaster: “Without an immediate ceasefire and access to vaccines and humanitarian aid, Gaza faces a public health disaster that will endanger children across the region and beyond.”

The health system in Gaza, already severely damaged by ongoing hostilities, is struggling to provide even basic care, leaving many children unvaccinated. At least 50,000 children born during the last 10 months of conflict are unlikely to have received any immunizations, while older children’s vaccine schedules have been disrupted by violence and displacement.

Over a million doses of the nOPV2 vaccine and 500 vaccine carriers have been delivered to the cold chain room in Deir Al-Balah, and the first-round vaccination campaign is planned to be rolled-out starting on August 31. The second phase will start in September, but the ongoing conflict presents significant challenges to the distribution process.

Health officials say the campaign’s success hinges on authorities allowing the swift entry of vaccines and cold chain equipment into Gaza.

Hours, not weeks to save lives

CARE’s primary health center in Deir Al-Balah, which first opened its doors on July 10, 2024. The clinic offers prenatal and postnatal healthcare, women’s sexual and reproductive health services, nutrition for children under five years, primary health for communicable and non-communicable diseases, psychological support, and the provision of primary care medications.

The resurgence of polio in Gaza is attributed to the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure , coupled with the restrictions on repairs and supplies, which have exacerbated the situation.

Jeremy Stoner, Save the Children’s Regional Director for the Middle East, emphasized the urgency: “Now that polio is confirmed, the response needs to be measured in hours, not weeks. Without immediate action, an entire generation is at risk of infection, and hundreds of children face paralysis from a highly communicable disease that can be prevented with a simple vaccine.”

Officials have said there will be 11 distribution centers, most of which are concentrated in the middle area of Gaza, Deir Al-Balah, where the vaccines will be stored. If any health facility participating in the campaign faces any shortages, they will be able to contact and procure more vaccines from the distribution points.

A group of 20 aid agencies and medical professionals stressed that the vaccine distribution requires full humanitarian access into Gaza from all border crossings and safe, unhindered movement within the Strip —something only achievable with an immediate end to hostilities.

“Polio can cause total paralysis within hours, and in Gaza, where only about 1,400 hospital beds are available for two million people, the stakes couldn’t be higher,” Stoner said. “These children do not have the luxury of time.”

CARE continues to call for an immediate ceasefire, the return of all hostages, and the passage of unfettered humanitarian aid into Gaza. Click below to find out how you can help.