Helping out in times of crisis in local community
- January 2006
Since the earthquake struck in early October 2005, the 30 employees at Novo Nordisk Pakistan have been doing all they can to assist those affected.
An unpleasant experience
“When I visited the camp for refugees from Balakot and saw the conditions under which these 200 families were surviving, I was in shock. I saw adults and children suffering from physical injuries, sleeping on wet mats in the cold weather, complaining of having nothing to eat,” says Rami Sharaf, General Manager of Novo Nordisk, Pakistan.
He asked the Novo Nordisk team to give a helping hand in organising the camp, arranging medical care for the injured, as well as blankets and food for everyone in the camp.
Diabetes field clinics and Novo Villages
For 21 whole days, the team provided their help by first of all organising three free Diabetes Medical Camps in three quake affected areas. During the first two-hour period of the opening of the first clinic, more than 30 people were treated with insulin. Assisted by the Novo Nordisk’s sales-force, diabetes specialists screened more than 2,000 patients and provided them free treatment as prescribed.
“This is the least we are able to do for these people. As humans and as Novo Nordisk employees we needed to show commitment and leadership in all aspects of our actions,” Rami Sharaf continues.
Novo Nordisk team also established nine Novo Villages (putting up 1,105 tent houses with blankets). These Novo tent villages were established in the affected mountain areas by the sales force in coordination with a local rescue team. These villages accommodate about 5,000 people. In addition, the Novo Nordisk employees also supplied basic food items for one village in need.
Emergency supplies
Novo Nordisk has donated insulin and other products worth 700,000 US dollars. The company has also pledged 1 million Danish kroner, half of which is for the Danish Red Cross, to assist with the relief work.
The Pakistani affiliate sent 2,200 sachets of chlorine water purification solution to purify water in wells. In addition it provided equipment and supplies for the dressing department in the Mansehra Field Hospital.
Novo Nordisk – the only company present
The Novo Nordisk Pakistan team really made a difference when no one else managed to organise help. Novo Nordisk was in fact the only company physically present at the effected sites. The whole experience took a great deal of commitment and coordination from the entire Novo Nordisk team, and shows of great teamwork.
“It made the Novo Nordisk employees in Pakistan very proud to be a part of the Novo Nordisk family – living the Novo Nordisk way of management,” Muhammad Navaid Ali, from the sales department in Pakistan concludes.
Employees TakeAction!
The help to the earthquake victims is but one example of how Novo Nordisk is reaching out to people in need, wherever they might be. While relief help is provided by the company, initiated by corporate management, in-kind relief work such as the help in Pakistan is driven by employees under the auspices of the TakeAction! programme.
TakeAction! is the Novo Nordisk employee volunteer programme to support initiatives that reflect the company’s Triple Bottom Line commitment, focusing on leveraging the company’s areas of expertise in social and environmental projects and community engagement.
Read more examples in the 2005 Annual Report.
