Supporting Mission-Aligned Causes
Locally and globally, Abt employees join in to raise awareness for the issues they care about. This past year, we participated in International Day of the World's Indigenous People, Black History Month, and Earth Day, to name a few.
We connect to causes that span boundaries. During Pride month (June), staff in our Boulder, Cambridge, Chicago, and Rockville offices in the U.S. volunteered for organizations serving LGBTQIA+ individuals and assembled over 2,500 safer-sex kits. In Timor-Leste, Abt’s Partnership for Human Development staff joined their local Pride Parade in support of diversity and inclusion.
Across many Abt locations, support for World Malaria Day (April 25) stems from our employees’ deeply felt commitment to prevent and treat this disease. Our colleague Abdoulaye Bangoura is a part of the fight against malaria because "the disease has taken [him] away from loved ones, and [he] wants to be part of the solution that makes malaria a story of the past."
And during Pinktober (October), our colleagues in Papua New Guinea found creative ways to promote awareness of women’s cancers, including cervical and breast cancer, which are rapidly increasing in PNG. Initiatives like nail painting were used to raise money to purchase over 1,350 vials of cancer medication for patients in need at a local hospital.
Pro Bono Work
We have continued to scale our Emerging Impact program, which gives staff the opportunity to develop professionally while serving a mission-aligned non-profit. In the program’s second cohort, Abt staff are partnering with Men Stopping Violence (MSV), an Atlanta-based social change organization taking action to end violence against women. The Abt team is conducting targeted research to strengthen MSV’s communications capacity in order to increase men’s awareness of the issue of violence against women (VAW) and their role in ending it, and to increase engagement in MSV programs that prepare men to take action to end VAW.
Environmental Partnerships
For Earth Day, which we celebrate throughout the month of April, we “act local.” We joined colleagues, friends, and family in environmental education activities, challenges, and clean-up events. In 2019, four of our U.S. offices coordinated clean-ups in creeks, parks, and other natural areas near our facilities.
In Papua New Guinea, Abt staff and families joined the #Trashtag Challenge to clean up beaches as part of the global movement to rid the world of waste during Earth Month and again to mark World Clean Up Day.
In Ethiopia, where Abt has worked for decades to strengthen the country’s health system, our Addis Ababa office took action when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched the national Green Legacy Initiative. Using seedlings purchased with staff-collected funds, our employees planted more than 200 trees in July 2019, working with partners in the community and local government. Employees contributed additional funds to fence in and care for the seedlings to guarantee they will thrive.
A focus on our communities’ waterways is another way we put into practice our goal of a thriving natural environment. In 2019, Abt’s Rockville office “adopted” a stream in Montgomery County, Maryland, which we are responsible for cleaning twice a year. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, Abt staff, in partnership with the local watershed association, go out in canoes to remove invasive water chestnuts from the Mystic River so that native aquatic life and river sports may thrive.
Abt’s EcoKids Drawing Challenge
Every year as part of our Earth Month celebration, we invite Abt staff from around the world to submit a drawing on behalf of a child answering a prompt about our planet. All EcoKids are recognized for their work through Abt’s intranet and get to vote on which animal Abt should “adopt” in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
In 2019, 34 kids and youth ages 4-18 from 14 countries around the world submitted their art answering the prompt, "What does protecting our threatened and endangered species look like to you?” Their inspiring expressions provide insight into the caring and curious minds of our future leaders.
