Community Updates

The UPS Foundation Commits $14.1 Million To Humanitarian Relief & Community Safety

Investing in the Enhancement of Humanitarian and Public Health Supply Chains in Africa and Around the World

Published 7 years ago | About a 5 minute read

Investing in the Enhancement of Humanitarian and Public Health Supply Chains in Africa and Around the World

US 03/29/17

Atlanta, GA

From imbedding its logistics experts with the United Nation’s agencies to vaccine tracking programs to drones delivering medical supplies, The UPS Foundation, the philanthropic arm of UPS (NYSE: UPS), is taking on global humanitarian relief and community safety in a big way. This year, The UPS Foundation will award $14.1 million in grant funding and in-kind support to advance humanitarian relief and community safety initiatives around the world.

"Preparing, responding and helping communities recover from natural disasters and other humanitarian crises occurring around the world are tragedies where The UPS Foundation and UPS can help save lives by contributing our logistics expertise, healthcare solutions and global reach,” said Eduardo Martinez, president of the UPS Foundation and chief diversity and inclusion officer for UPS. “We are honored and humbled to collaborate with our United Nations and NGO partners to help people and communities when they need us most.”

Among the initiatives, The UPS Foundation has teamed up with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and Zipline, a California-based robotics company, to leverage drones to deliver life-saving blood, medicines and vaccines to remote communities, beginning with Rwanda. The UPS Foundation also is working with UNICEF on the rollout of Visibility for Vaccines (ViVa), a cutting-edge tracking system that enables early identification of potential stock outs and overstocks of vaccines. ViVa will help global communities ensure supply of life-saving vaccines by providing alerts of critical shortage and overstock situations and allowing for corrective actions.

Another 2017 focus is the expansion of The UPS Foundation’s Humanitarian Expert on Loan program in which it loans UPS executives for long-term assignments with NGOs to provide logistical support and technical assistance. In 2016, The UPS Foundation deployed logistics managers to strengthen supply chains in emerging markets for organizations such as Gavi, UNHCR and the World Food Program.

Among other humanitarian organizations receiving grants this year are:

American Red Cross, in support of the Annual Disaster Giving Program that enables the Red Cross to provide food and shelter immediately following disasters as well as the Home Fire Preparedness Campaign and Global Disaster Preparedness Center Disaster Resilience App
CARE USA, to aid with capacity building and training workshops for CARE logisticians as well as the launch of a commodity tracking system platform pilot
Good360, to support DisasterRecovery360 platform technology enhancements and the development of Disaster Council and Recovery Kits
National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD), to support the organization’s Long-term Recovery Initiative and Long-term Recovery Mini-Grant Program
Operation Hope, toward the Disaster Recovery Fund to help disaster survivors with financial recovery solutions as well as the Financial Recovery Preparedness Program for small businesses
St. Bernard Project, Inc., to support the National Disaster Resilience & Recovery Lab (DRL), which provides re-building support for communities that have been impacted by disasters
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, toward capacity building for global fleet management and emergency preparedness supply training
U.S. Chamber of Commerce Corporate Citizenship Center, to aid in the expansion of the Saglam Kobi Business Disaster Resiliency Project in Turkey and the launch of the Connecting Business disaster resilience program in Mexico
World Food Program USA, in support of its Zero Hunger National Supply Chain SCAN assessments and other initiatives

The UPS Foundation also will award grants that help extend the reach of UPS Road Code™ safe driving training program for teens, which is a major global community safety initiative of the company that was first launched in 2009.

The program is offered in the U.S. with Boys & Girls Clubs of America and overseas with youth development organizations. Taught by UPS volunteers and based on the company’s safe-driving methods, the program is available to teens between the ages of 13 and 18. To date, more than 36,000 teenagers have participated. The program operates in Canada, China, Germany, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States. This year, UPS is expanding the program into the United Arab Emirates.

These grants are part of The UPS Foundation’s commitment to global volunteerism. For more information about UPS’s philanthropic and volunteerism efforts, please visit www.UPS.com/Foundation.

About The UPS Foundation

UPS (NYSE: UPS) is a global leader in logistics, offering a broad range of solutions including the transportation of packages and freight; the facilitation of international trade, and the deployment of advanced technology to more efficiently manage the world of business. Since its founding in 1907, UPS has built a legacy as a caring and responsible corporate citizen, supporting programs that provide long-term solutions to community needs. Founded in 1951, The UPS Foundation leads its global citizenship programs and is responsible for facilitating community involvement to local, national, and global communities. In 2016, UPS and its employees, active and retired, invested more than $116 million in charitable giving around the world. The UPS Foundation can be found on the web at UPS.com/Foundation. To get UPS news direct, visit pressroom.ups.com/RSS or follow @UPS_News on Twitter.

For more information about this press release, contact:
Kristen Petrella
UPS
+1(404) 828-4182
[email protected]