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Direct Relief has been awarded the 2025 Seoul Peace Prize for its longstanding humanitarian work in delivering medical resources to advance global health and aid communities impacted by disasters and conflicts, the prize committee announced Tuesday, February 18, 2025.

The Seoul Peace Prize, established to commemorate the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, honors individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to world peace and cooperation. The selection process involves approximately 1,300 nominators from South Korea and around the world, including internationally renowned figures from various fields.

“By promptly and efficiently delivering medical supplies, Direct Relief has not only protected lives and ensured psychological stability, but has also instilled hope for a new beginning,” the Seoul Peace Prize Cultural Foundation said. “It has demonstrated humanitarianism and made a significant contribution to the advancement of human welfare.”

The Seoul Peace Prize has been awarded every other year since 1990. As the 17th recipient of the prize, Direct Relief joins a distinguished group of laureates including former Czech President and human rights champion Václav Havel, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, renowned economist Muhammad Yunus, and Doctors Without Borders.

“Direct Relief is deeply honored to receive the Seoul Peace Prize,” said Dr. Byron Scott, CEO of Direct Relief. “This recognition affirms our belief that public health is a requirement for societal health. When communities have access to healthcare, they build resilience against the destabilizing forces of disasters, conflict, and poverty.”

Direct Relief is a humanitarian aid organization with a mission to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies – without regard to politics, religion, or ability to pay.

From its beginnings in 1948—when Estonian immigrant William Zimdin started sending food, clothing, and medicine to post-war Europe—Direct Relief has upheld one defining principle: every individual deserves high-quality health care, no matter their circumstance.

Over the past seven-plus decades, that commitment has guided the organization to become one of the world’s largest humanitarian nonprofits, delivering over $16 billion in medical aid and $350 million in grants to 136 countries and all 50 U.S. states since year 2000.

Mastercard

Most entrepreneurs dream of tapping into the kind of capital, industry connections and sophisticated software that Martin Naor has at his fingertips.

The Uruguayan entrepreneur has certainly benefitted from a full career that took him from managing products and businesses for Microsoft to sitting on company boards, investing in startups and running the Montevideo-based tech firm Infocorp.

Yet launching a new business is always a twisty road, and Naor had his share of unforeseen curves when he started his fintech Bankingly a decade ago.

Bankingly was born from a flash insight. Naor noticed that while major banks were proactively building tech solutions to drive their digital transformation, smaller institutions were struggling to migrate online.

He also understood how transformative digital banking could be for people living Latin America, where one in five adults are still unbanked and many of those who are still spend hours travelling to their bank branch.

So he created a venture to provide smaller banks and credit unions from Argentina to Mexico — and more recently, Kenya and Nigeria — with the software they need to offer digital banking services.

“Everybody wants to sell to the big boys,” says Naor, 53. “We decided the big blue ocean of opportunity was on small and medium-sized financial institutions in emerging markets.”

Rather than start from scratch, he launched Bankingly as a Infocorp spin-off so he could piggyback off the company’s products and experiences and reach the market quickly with a segment-friendly offering of low start-up costs and per-usage charges. 

What he did not foresee was the hesitancy. Back in 2015, many of the smaller banks Naor approached saw little reason to start offering online banking to their customers. They preferred relying solely on tried-and-tested traditional branch banking.

“They were less anxious to digitalize than we expected. My naïve starting point was that if I put an affordable, scalable solution in front of them, they’ll jump at it,” he admits.

He quickly realized he needed to tweak Bankingly’s business model and spend its capital wisely so he could take the time to show banks and credit unions the benefits of digitalization, plus convince regulators its cloud-based systems were secure.

Despite the slow start, financial institutions who started using Bankingly’s apps and platforms soon saw their customers were more likely to deposit their salaries, build up savings and increase their card transactions.

Ten years down the road, Bankingly has 120 clients in 20 countries who use its cloud-based solutions to provide some 4 million customers with digital services from onboarding to payment transactions and loan applications.

More importantly, by giving millions of people across Latin America and in Africa access to accounts from their smartphones, Bankingly is playing a role in significantly helping boost financial inclusion in the region. A 2023 Mastercard survey on financial inclusion in Latin America showed that 79% of adults had a bank account in 2023, as opposed to 52% in a report from 2014.

But just 40% of people outside of major cities and 59% of people from low-income households held bank accounts, according to the same study, so more still needs to be done to broaden access to those who have traditionally been excluded.

For Bankingly, joining Mastercard Start Path, the company’s award-winning startup engagement program, in October will help speed up emerging market digitalization and offers a chance to potentially acquire new clients who can reach those unbanked people, including the ability to offer credit cards to their customers for the first time.

Motivated by the opportunity to open up financial services for more underserved communities and small businesses, Naor hopes Bankingly’s growth will mean more than 5 million people are using its software within two years.

As he firmly believes, “Digital financial services can really change lives.”

Originally published by Mastercard

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

Mastercard

Most entrepreneurs dream of tapping into the kind of capital, industry connections and sophisticated software that Martin Naor has at his fingertips.

The Uruguayan entrepreneur has certainly benefitted from a full career that took him from managing products and businesses for Microsoft to sitting on company boards, investing in startups and running the Montevideo-based tech firm Infocorp.

Yet launching a new business is always a twisty road, and Naor had his share of unforeseen curves when he started his fintech Bankingly a decade ago.

Bankingly was born from a flash insight. Naor noticed that while major banks were proactively building tech solutions to drive their digital transformation, smaller institutions were struggling to migrate online.

He also understood how transformative digital banking could be for people living Latin America, where one in five adults are still unbanked and many of those who are still spend hours travelling to their bank branch.

So he created a venture to provide smaller banks and credit unions from Argentina to Mexico — and more recently, Kenya and Nigeria — with the software they need to offer digital banking services.

“Everybody wants to sell to the big boys,” says Naor, 53. “We decided the big blue ocean of opportunity was on small and medium-sized financial institutions in emerging markets.”

Rather than start from scratch, he launched Bankingly as a Infocorp spin-off so he could piggyback off the company’s products and experiences and reach the market quickly with a segment-friendly offering of low start-up costs and per-usage charges. 

What he did not foresee was the hesitancy. Back in 2015, many of the smaller banks Naor approached saw little reason to start offering online banking to their customers. They preferred relying solely on tried-and-tested traditional branch banking.

“They were less anxious to digitalize than we expected. My naïve starting point was that if I put an affordable, scalable solution in front of them, they’ll jump at it,” he admits.

He quickly realized he needed to tweak Bankingly’s business model and spend its capital wisely so he could take the time to show banks and credit unions the benefits of digitalization, plus convince regulators its cloud-based systems were secure.

Despite the slow start, financial institutions who started using Bankingly’s apps and platforms soon saw their customers were more likely to deposit their salaries, build up savings and increase their card transactions.

Ten years down the road, Bankingly has 120 clients in 20 countries who use its cloud-based solutions to provide some 4 million customers with digital services from onboarding to payment transactions and loan applications.

More importantly, by giving millions of people across Latin America and in Africa access to accounts from their smartphones, Bankingly is playing a role in significantly helping boost financial inclusion in the region. A 2023 Mastercard survey on financial inclusion in Latin America showed that 79% of adults had a bank account in 2023, as opposed to 52% in a report from 2014.

But just 40% of people outside of major cities and 59% of people from low-income households held bank accounts, according to the same study, so more still needs to be done to broaden access to those who have traditionally been excluded.

For Bankingly, joining Mastercard Start Path, the company’s award-winning startup engagement program, in October will help speed up emerging market digitalization and offers a chance to potentially acquire new clients who can reach those unbanked people, including the ability to offer credit cards to their customers for the first time.

Motivated by the opportunity to open up financial services for more underserved communities and small businesses, Naor hopes Bankingly’s growth will mean more than 5 million people are using its software within two years.

As he firmly believes, “Digital financial services can really change lives.”

Originally published by Mastercard

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

Mastercard

Most entrepreneurs dream of tapping into the kind of capital, industry connections and sophisticated software that Martin Naor has at his fingertips.

The Uruguayan entrepreneur has certainly benefitted from a full career that took him from managing products and businesses for Microsoft to sitting on company boards, investing in startups and running the Montevideo-based tech firm Infocorp.

Yet launching a new business is always a twisty road, and Naor had his share of unforeseen curves when he started his fintech Bankingly a decade ago.

Bankingly was born from a flash insight. Naor noticed that while major banks were proactively building tech solutions to drive their digital transformation, smaller institutions were struggling to migrate online.

He also understood how transformative digital banking could be for people living Latin America, where one in five adults are still unbanked and many of those who are still spend hours travelling to their bank branch.

So he created a venture to provide smaller banks and credit unions from Argentina to Mexico — and more recently, Kenya and Nigeria — with the software they need to offer digital banking services.

“Everybody wants to sell to the big boys,” says Naor, 53. “We decided the big blue ocean of opportunity was on small and medium-sized financial institutions in emerging markets.”

Rather than start from scratch, he launched Bankingly as a Infocorp spin-off so he could piggyback off the company’s products and experiences and reach the market quickly with a segment-friendly offering of low start-up costs and per-usage charges. 

What he did not foresee was the hesitancy. Back in 2015, many of the smaller banks Naor approached saw little reason to start offering online banking to their customers. They preferred relying solely on tried-and-tested traditional branch banking.

“They were less anxious to digitalize than we expected. My naïve starting point was that if I put an affordable, scalable solution in front of them, they’ll jump at it,” he admits.

He quickly realized he needed to tweak Bankingly’s business model and spend its capital wisely so he could take the time to show banks and credit unions the benefits of digitalization, plus convince regulators its cloud-based systems were secure.

Despite the slow start, financial institutions who started using Bankingly’s apps and platforms soon saw their customers were more likely to deposit their salaries, build up savings and increase their card transactions.

Ten years down the road, Bankingly has 120 clients in 20 countries who use its cloud-based solutions to provide some 4 million customers with digital services from onboarding to payment transactions and loan applications.

More importantly, by giving millions of people across Latin America and in Africa access to accounts from their smartphones, Bankingly is playing a role in significantly helping boost financial inclusion in the region. A 2023 Mastercard survey on financial inclusion in Latin America showed that 79% of adults had a bank account in 2023, as opposed to 52% in a report from 2014.

But just 40% of people outside of major cities and 59% of people from low-income households held bank accounts, according to the same study, so more still needs to be done to broaden access to those who have traditionally been excluded.

For Bankingly, joining Mastercard Start Path, the company’s award-winning startup engagement program, in October will help speed up emerging market digitalization and offers a chance to potentially acquire new clients who can reach those unbanked people, including the ability to offer credit cards to their customers for the first time.

Motivated by the opportunity to open up financial services for more underserved communities and small businesses, Naor hopes Bankingly’s growth will mean more than 5 million people are using its software within two years.

As he firmly believes, “Digital financial services can really change lives.”

Originally published by Mastercard

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

Written by Kimberly Bishop | Corporate Responsibility

Gen Blog | Community

On the second Tuesday of every February, more than 100 countries around the world come together to celebrate Safer Internet Day. This global day of awareness aims to empower everyone to use technology responsibly, respectfully, critically and creatively, especially children and young people.

At Gen, Cyber Safety is our focus all year long. Over the past few years, we’ve developed new tools and platforms that address the most common issues that young people face online, from scams to cyberbullying to protecting personal information. We continue to partner with leading nonprofit organizations around the world to provide children, young people and their families with the resources they need to navigate life online with confidence and care.

Empowering Kids and Families to Have The Smart Talk

Norton, one of our trusted Cyber Safety brands, partners with National PTA to offer The Smart Talk, a free resource that helps families have ongoing conversations about how to use the internet responsibly. The platform has grown to more than 12,000 users since launch, and Norton continues to provide technical support, keeping The Smart Talk up to date with the most current information about Cyber Safety best practices. In addition to offering this tool for free online, Norton makes possible grants to local PTAs to host live PTA Connected: The Smart Talk workshops with parents, children and educators.

“The Smart Talk [helped bring] awareness to our families that healthily social media and internet safety is more than just a password,” said one grantee. “This program opened heartfelt, honest conversations and set plans in place to protect one another in an increasingly cyber world.”

Helping Young People Build Digital Skills

Norton also partners with Discovery Education, a global leader in education technology, on My Digital Life, a multi-language platform dedicated to enhancing Cyber Safety for children in grades 3-8. The platform contains lesson plans, videos and interactive tools for teachers, students and parents that outline the best ways students can avoid viruses, detect misinformation, protect their privacy and more. My Digital Life expanded into schools across the U.K. in 2024, bringing its total reach to more than 264,000 students globally. The free website is now translated into Spanish and Arabic with French and German being added later this year. Learn more about this partnership here.

In India, Norton works with Bal Raksha Bharat (BRB), also known as Save the Children – India, to train schoolteachers on how to instill strong digital habits in their students. Over the past year, the program reached more than 10,000 students, parents and educators across 40 schools in Pune, Maharashtra and Thiruvallur, Tamil Nadu, with tailored lessons for students aged 10-12 and 13-16. Since the program launched in 2021, more than 27,600 children have taken online safety classes, while 1,800 teachers and more than 4,600 parents have also received online safety orientation.

Additionally, we recognize that not all young people experience the internet in the same way. For example, young women face a unique set of challenges when navigating life online, and we believe they should have resources that address these needs.

That’s why we partner with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) to offer Surf Smart 2.0, a unique badge-earning program that gives girls and young women aged 5-25 the basics of Cyber Safety and responsible digital decision-making. Between April 2023 and April 2024, WAGGGS estimates that this partnership has reached more than 42,000 girls and young women, including more than 17,800 who earned the Surf Smart 2.0 badge. In total, since its inception, Surf Smart has empowered over 850,000 young people in over 100 countries, providing them with vital tools to help protect themselves online.

We also support The Trevor Project, the leading suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ young people, who have experienced an increased need for the organization’s services in recent months. We provide ongoing support to The Trevor Project’s affirming online community for LGBTQ+ young people. We also co-developed the organization’s Guide to Online Safety for LGBTQ+ Young People, a free digital resource to help queer young people navigate the digital world. The guide was mentioned in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention as an example of “What Success Looks Like” in specialty resources for particular communities. 

We hope this year’s Safer Internet Day continues to inspire a better internet for all. These grants were awarded from the Gen Foundation, a corporate advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation. For more on our Cyber Safety education and training efforts, visit our latest Social Impact Report.

CNH brand, CASE Construction Equipment, is returning to Bauma, the world’s leading trade fair for construction equipment machinery, taking place from April 7-13 in Munich, Germany. As a finalist in both the Digital and the Mechanical Engineering categories of the Bauma Innovation Awards, the company will present a wide range of advanced solutions, with a focus on alternative fuels, automation and connectivity. CASE will demonstrate its comprehensive range of equipment, designed to meet the evolving needs of operators and fleet managers across Europe.

“The ‘Let’s Drive the Future’ concept embodies CASE’s commitment to addressing the challenges our customers face in a sector impacted by new regulations and by a shortage of skilled operators,” said Fabrizio Cepollina, Head of CNH CE EMEA. “Our goal is to offer solutions that integrate new fuel technologies and automation to enhance productivity and efficiency.”

CASE’s extensive stand at Bauma will focus on new wheel loaders, mini excavators, backhoe loaders, crawler excavators and an expanding offer of electric models. These machines, designed for applications ranging from urban construction to waste management, quarrying, and road construction, are engineered to deliver operational efficiency, minimised operating costs and reduced environmental impact—all in line with rapidly changing market demands. In addition, CASE will showcase two customised machines, examples of its new Special Application Division that is housed within the Sampierana R&D Department.

The CASE Smart Loader Assist AI Technology is a finalist in the Digital category of the Bauma Innovation Awards, while the Impact remote-controlled electric loader is a finalist in the Mechanical Engineering category.

Zero emission electric models will be central to the CASE display at Bauma. Electric machines provide environmentally responsible solutions with numerous advantages, including lower energy consumption, quieter operation and reduced maintenance costs.

The CASE stand at Bauma 2025 invites all visitors to explore the brand’s vision for a sustainable, automated construction job site of the future.

Click here to read more.

With the Los Angeles area having suffered catastrophic damage from the recent wildfires, AEG’s Los Angeles Kings teamed up with the National Hockey League (NHL) to host a special benefit hockey game, Skate For LA Strong, “A Celebration to Support the Fire Recovery Efforts in Los Angeles.” The event aimed to raise proceeds for the LA Fire Relief Fund and provide support for those impacted by the fires.

Held at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA, Skate For LA Strong brought together celebrities, professional athletes, musicians, local first responders, and—most importantly—fire victims and their families. The exhibition game featured four teams competing in a single elimination format, with each team’s roster including a mix of celebrities, former NHL greats, and first responders from the Los Angeles Fire Department, Los Angeles County Fire Department, and Los Angeles Police Department.

Headlining the player participants were stars like Justin Bieber and Steve Carell, alongside Hockey Hall of Fame members Rob Blake, Cammi Granato, Mark Messier, and Jeremy Roenick. Celebrity coaches, including Danny DeVito, Snoop Dogg, Will Ferrell, Al Michaels, Cobie Smulders, Hannah Stocking, Vince Vaughn, and Andrew Whitworth, added to the excitement. A complete list of participants and attendees can be found here.

For many attendees, the night was a rare opportunity to take a break from the overwhelming reality of loss and recovery, instead immersing themselves in a lively and uplifting atmosphere. Skate For LA Strong highlighted the power of sports and entertainment in bringing communities together, offering comfort, and fostering resilience in times of hardship.

The event also featured musical performances by producer and Kaskade, singer/songwriter Jordan Davis and singer Lauren Spencer Smith.

Originally published by Northwestern Mutual on February 11, 2025

MILWAUKEE, February 25, 2025 /3BL/ – 14 Northwestern Mutual advisors were recognized on the prestigious Forbes Top Women Wealth Advisors Best-in-State list for 2025. Advisors who earn a spot on Forbes‘ annual list stand out for delivering an exceptional experience, superior outcomes, and greater financial security for their clients.

“These elite advisors represent the pinnacle of our industry, showcasing how better conversations and revealing blind spots can lead to greater financial security and success,” said John Roberts, chief field officer at Northwestern Mutual. “Through comprehensive planning combining risk protection and wealth management, each of these honorees and their teams continue to deliver outstanding results for clients while empowering more Americans to worry less, live more, and seize their financial future.”

Northwestern Mutual is focused on fostering an environment that supports the growth of all its financial advisors and continues to earn acclaim for that commitment. It was named one of Forbes‘ Best Employers for Diversity and a Top 50 “Best of the Best” Corporation for Inclusion. These accolades, along with the 14 advisors listed on Forbes‘ latest Best-in-State ranking, exemplify Northwestern Mutual’s commitment to advancing women and diversity in the financial services industry.

Forbes Top Women Wealth Advisors Best-in-State recognition showcases the top professionals in the industry, representing experts across the nation by state. Conducted by SHOOK Research, advisors are selected following a careful vetting process based upon qualitative and quantitative data, interviews, service models, investing models, the application of best practices, and other criteria.

About Northwestern Mutual

Northwestern Mutual has been helping people and businesses achieve financial security for more than 165 years. Through a comprehensive planning approach, Northwestern Mutual combines the expertise of its financial professionals with a personalized digital experience and industry-leading products to help its clients plan for what’s most important. With over $627 billion of total assets1 being managed across the company’s institutional portfolio as well as retail investment client portfolios, more than $36 billion in revenues, and $2.3 trillion worth of life insurance protection in force, Northwestern Mutual delivers financial security to more than five million people with life, disability income and long-term care insurance, annuities, and brokerage and advisory services. Northwestern Mutual ranked 110 on the 2024 FORTUNE® 500 and was recognized by FORTUNE as one of the “World’s Most Admired” life insurance companies in 2025.

Northwestern Mutual is the marketing name for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (NM), Milwaukee, WI (life and disability insurance, annuities, and life insurance with long-term care benefits) and its subsidiaries. Subsidiaries include Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC (NMIS) (investment brokerage services), broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, member FINRA and SIPC; the Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company® (NMWMC) (investment advisory and services), federal savings bank; and Northwestern Long Term Care Insurance Company (NLTC) (long-term care insurance).

Northwestern Mutual continues to have the highest financial strength ratings awarded to any U.S. life insurer by all four of the major rating agencies: A.M. Best Company, A++ (highest), October 2024; Fitch Ratings, AAA (highest), December 2024; Moody’s Investors Service, Aaa (highest), August 2024; S&P Global Ratings, AA+ (second highest), April 2024. Third-party ratings are subject to change and are a measure of the company’s relative financial strength and security but are not a reflection of the performance or stability of funds invested in a company’s separate accounts. Ratings are for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and Northwestern Long Term Care Insurance Company. The dividend scale and the underlying dividend interest rates are reviewed annually and are subject to change. Future dividends are not guaranteed, although Northwestern Mutual has paid a dividend every year since 1872.

1Includes investments and separate account assets of Northwestern Mutual as well as retail investment client assets held or managed by Northwestern Mutual.

*Forbes “Top Women Wealth Advisors” & Top Women Wealth Advisors Best in State, [February 11, 2025]. Research and ranking developed by SHOOK Research, LLC. Based upon data as of 9/30/2024. Northwestern Mutual and its advisors do not pay for placement on 3rd party rating lists, but do pay marketing fees to these organizations to promote the rating(s). Rankings and recognitions are no guarantee of future investment success.

SOURCE Northwestern Mutual

1-800-323-7033, mediarelations@northwesternmutual.com

LONDON, February 25, 2025 /3BL/ – Leidos (NYSE: LDOS) announced the company has been contracted for cybersecurity work by NHS Supply Chain, which supports excellence in patient care across England and Wales by ensuring access to high-quality, cost-effective medical products, services and food. During the initial three-year contract, Leidos will work to enhance the organisation’s cyber security posture to help it continue to source, deliver and supply vital healthcare goods to the NHS in England and Wales.

“Leidos brings extensive experience in delivering trusted cyber solutions. With decades of cyber experience and a global workforce skilled in this domain, our team utilises advanced capabilities to counter threats and secure what matters most,” said Eric Freeman, chief executive, Leidos UK & Europe. “We are committed to adding value to NHS Supply Chain and supporting its essential work in delivering excellent patient care.”

As part of the work, Leidos will provide 24/7 cyber threat monitoring while also working to enhance assurance standards through collaboration and continuous improvement. These will help deliver a resilient and sustainable cybersecurity service that supports uninterrupted performance and safeguards from potential threats. This contract builds on NHS Supply Chain’s growing efforts to defend their networks from cyberattacks as part of its IT transformation, which will build services to meet future technological needs, including supporting interactions with customers and suppliers.

Matt Wynn, executive director for data and technology at NHS Supply Chain, said: “Our collaboration with Leidos demonstrates our intent to continue to drive forward an improved cybersecurity posture. Ensuring robust, proactive security and vulnerability management is crucial for safeguarding the wider business against external threats. As well as being incredibly experienced in this business-critical field, Leidos has a deep understanding of the types of environments we will be working in where multiple collaborators work seamlessly together as a single, unified technology team.”

About Leidos

Leidos is an industry and technology leader serving government and commercial customers with smarter, more efficient digital and mission innovations. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with 48,000 global employees, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $15.4 billion for the fiscal year ended December 29, 2023. For more information, visit www.leidos.com.

Breast cancer remains a significant health challenge globally with approximately 2.3M new cases in 20221. While breast cancer deaths continue to fall in many countries worldwide, in others the situation is very different. In this article we meet some of the inspiring people who are working to change this situation.

Breast cancer is still the world’s most prevalent cancer, but survival rates have greatly improved since the 1980s in countries that have early detection programs and different ways of treating it2. But in other countries, the picture is very different.

Studies show that women in Ghana are diagnosed at more advanced stages of the disease – up to 70% of women have advanced stage cancer by the time it is identified, resulting in limited treatment success and high death rates3. This frequently comes down to a lack of awareness and education, as well as common myths, stigmas and misconceptions.

Treating women with breast cancer in Ghana, as well as raising awareness about the condition, has been an important part of Dr Beatrice Wiafe Addai’s lifelong work. General surgeon, breast surgeon and consultant in breast cancer management, she is the founder and CEO of Ghana’s Peace and Love Hospitals and founder and president of Breast Care International (BCI) and BCI America.

“We have an unfortunate situation in Ghana where the majority of breast cancer patients present with advanced stage cancer. This makes the cure difficult, especially when it’s an advanced tumor. Some of our patients are also quite young when cancer strikes, and the tumors are more aggressive.”

Diagnosis is only the start of the journey and once treatment begins, it is vital that our patients get the medicines they need.

“A course of chemotherapy can last for six or eight cycles,” says Dr Addai. “Sometimes when patients are receiving chemo, their white blood cell counts goes down and we have to stop treatment. There is a drug to counteract this but it is very expensive in Ghana and most patients cannot afford to buy it.”

Working to support Dr Addai’s mission, Teva’s breast cancer access program was set up in January 2022 and provides crucial medicines, treating about 2,350 women in 2024 alone. In 2024, Teva contributed approximately 329,000-unit doses valued at approximately $1.5M to support the fight against this disease. Since 2022, Teva has donated more than one million doses to this program, valued at over $4.4M.

“You cannot explain how people feel when they receive these medications, these people who had no hope of receiving cancer treatment,” she says. “It gives a lot of hope to patients and it gives joy to the prescribers and care givers. At last, a woman who needs the meds gets a constant supply throughout the course of her treatment.”

“Through our Access Programs, we are trying to reach underserved populations that we’re not reaching through our normal commercial pathways”, explains Yonina Fleischman, who leads Teva’s Healthy Equity and Access team. “We are delighted to be working with Dr Addai for our first breast cancer program. We want it to be scalable and sustainable and plans are already underway to expand our breast cancer initiatives.”

This is one of eight access programs that Teva has committed to run globally by 2025, getting medicines to more people, including in low and middle-income countries, who otherwise would not be able to access them.

The process of getting medications to underserved populations in often hard-to-reach-areas can be a tricky one – and this is where the third member of the partnership comes in, humanitarian aid organization Direct Relief. VP Tom Roane explains:

“Teva brings its world class drugs to the program. It has a portfolio second to none in terms of the drugs that are required on international protocols to be able to properly treat breast cancer patients. Direct Relief brings the supply chain logistics expertise, making sure those medicines get to where they need to, in perfect condition.”

It’s not just about donating the medicines. It’s also about creating an effective supply chain and the right storage conditions – many need to be stored in a refrigerator for example. Then, once everything is in place, women need to access the treatments, often from very remote rural areas where they live.

On supporting underserved communities, Tom adds: “As low- and middle-income countries continue to expand capacity for healthcare services, including the provision of specialized treatment and care, the opportunity to show the benefits of investments in humanitarian approaches like this project with BCI, Teva, and Direct Relief are critical to move towards lasting improvement in the healthcare system.”

“In partnership with Teva we have been offering patient support for education and awareness creation, psychological care and treatment,” Dr Wiafe Addai explains. “We have the largest breast cancer survivor association in Africa and intend to set up various patient groups, similar to those in the US and UK, where especially vulnerable women can access information, financial and social support, since such groups/systems do not presently exist in our country”.

“There are a lot of myths and misconceptions around breast cancer in Ghana”, she continues.” Women traditionally find a lump and go to their local prayer group or herbalist to cure it. In the past there have been no screening programs, so we are teaching people how to do their own breast self-examination. Thanks to our work with Teva, clinical breast screenings are being offered to more women in the communities, in churches, markets and other places, especially in the hard-to-reach areas. We are educating young women in high schools about breast cancer (“Young Ambassadors”) and encouraging them to share this knowledge with the women in their families. We hope to train more across the entire country”.

In 2024, Teva’s partnership with Breast Care International continued to make significant strides in combating breast cancer in Ghana. We expanded our efforts to include comprehensive capacity-building initiatives aimed at enhancing the skills of healthcare professionals and increasing community awareness across remote villages in the North Western region of Ghana.

BCI conducted oncology training programs for physician assistants and nurses reaching more than 65 healthcare professionals (HCPs), executed community outreach programs reaching over 7,800 community members, providing critical knowledge about breast cancer early detection and prevention, and organized clinical screening sessions reaching over 4,500 individuals, allowing for the early identification of potential cases. Expansion is underway to the Eastern region as well.

The legacy of this work will hopefully speak for itself in the months and years to come.

“Beatrice is ahead of the curve in the community outreach and early detection work that she does,” says Tom Roane, “She has really made community outreach and early detection a key portion of her cancer care program. She’s not just providing treatment, she is helping to change lives.”

References

1World Cancer Research Fund – Breast Cancer Statistics 
2World Health Organization Breast Cancer Factsheet 
3GNA Breast Cancer: Over 70% diagnoses in advanced stages

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