Denmark
Mikkel Vestergaard-Frandsen is the third generation of his family to run the Vestergaard-Frandsen company, based in Denmark. The privately owned company's sole business is helping the world's poor and disadvantaged.
While there are several public companies which aid the poor as part or even all of their business, Vestergaard-Frandsen has a unique attitude about the work. Kevin Starace, who is a malaria adviser for the United Nations Foundation, sums it up well: “They think of the end user as a consumer rather than as a patient or a victim.” This outlook is behind many of Vestergaard-Frandsen innovations, such as adding a cell phone pocket to a mosquito net, making insecticidal fabrics in patterns suitable for hanging as curtains, and designing a LifeStraw, which is not only capable of rendering dirty water safe to drink, but is also so beautiful as to be included in museum design collections.
It seems too good to be true, but Vestergaard-Frandsen's work is more than charity; the company has prospered. According to Dr. Ernesto Ruiz-Tiben, who directs a program to rid the world of guinea-worms (microscopic larvae that wreak havoc on the body if ingested), Vestergaard-Frandsen is “very reliable and they have good quality control. . . We’ve bought millions of dollars’ worth of product from them.” Seems like the perfect win-win!
Read more about the company and its products at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/health/research/03prof.html?_r=2&ref=science
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
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