Why IBM Pays Its Employees To Take Time Off To Tackle The World’s Problems
By Ben Paynter
Originally published on Fast Company | July 26, 2017
Currently, only about 10% of cancer patients in sub-Sahara Africa receive chemotherapy treatment. More than a half million people are diagnosed with cancer in the region annually, while nearly the same number die from it each year, too. Without intervention, that toll is expected to double by 2030, partly because as people are otherwise living longer, thanks to better malaria and HIV treatments and prevention. But chemotherapy and related drugs are both expensive and tricky to use because there are so many types and stages of the disease.
To fix it, you’d need to somehow lower and stabilize medicine prices and train doctors on various treatment protocols. (Plus, adapt everything in a way that could work in areas with minimal medical facilities.)
In August 2016, an unlikely company offered free help. IBM teamed up with the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the Clinton Global Access Initiative (CGAI), to launch the first of an emerging set of IBM Health Corp grants to tackle just these kind of thorny, multi-variable medical problems. Rather than donate money to the cause, it was offering something different: employees who would take paid time-off to work pro bono, perhaps the world’s most valuable brain trust for number crunching and advanced computing.
Read the full article at FASTCOMPANY
To learn more about IBM's Corporate Citizenship Contributions around education, see the IBM 2016 Corporate Responsibility Report
