Endeavour Magazine January 2022

JANUARY 2022 www.littlegatepublishing.com

Medcorp ready for anything

TTAIFA

Providing a lifeline UK £4.95 CAN $7.95 USA $7.95 EUR €5.95 SA ZAR 69.00

SANBS

Heads up

WCBS

Doing something remarkable

NWSC

Reaching Uganda Inspired by YOUR SUCCESS

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Heads of Departments Editor-in-Chief Alice Instone-Brewer editor@littlegatepublishing.com Sales Manager Emlyn Freeman emlynfreeman@littlegatepublishing.com Sales Manager Andrew Williams andrew@littlegatepublishing.com Project Director James Lapping james@littlegatepublishing.com Corporate Director Anthony Letchumaman anthonyl@littlegatepublishing.com Lead Designer Alina Sandu studio@littlegatepublishing.com Founder and CEO Stephen Warman stevewarman@littlegatepublishing.com For enquiries or subscriptions contact info@littlegatepublishing.com +44 1603 296 100 ENDEAVOUR MAGAZINE is published

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Editor’s Note

H

appy New Year, everyone! It’s 2022, if anyone can believe that. We decided to start off our new year at Littlegate with a threefeature medical special: we’ve revisited our old friends at SANBS (the South African National Blood Service) and we’ve also touched base with WCBS (the Western Cape Blood Service) to get acquainted with the other not-for-profit organisation that’s helping to carry the weight of South Africa’s blood bank needs. After speaking with SSEM last month about the incredible, life-changing work that these two services do for South Africa, we wanted to give them the attention they’re due.

These two features are joined by MEDCORP Ltd, one of the leading healthcare providers in the Caribbean region. MEDCORP operates throughout Trinidad and Tobago, doing incredible work every tear, year-round, but especially in the face of the past two years’ events. Every medical company or organisation we’ve spoken to has been rushed off its feet during the Covid pandemic, and as we venture into a new year and hopefully leave the worst of that behind us, we’d like to join the many voices offering thanks and congratulations, once more, to all medical professionals and the teams that support them and make their work possible.

As well as these medical features, we have a range of other stories that we’re excited to share from around the globe, and in our Amazing World segment, we’ve brought ourselves back to the UK with a look at an old British tradition around advent and the New Year – one that, in Wales, is still alive and as spooky and festive as ever: the Mari Lywd.

(Though, whether entering each other’s homes and helping ourselves to each other’s food is very Covid-safe is another matter!)

by Alice Instone-Brewer

Copyright© Littlegate Publishing Ltd 2022

Endeavour Magazine | 3

SANBS

Features 7 TTAIFA

Providing a lifeline 17

Medcorp Ltd

Ready for anything 25 SANBS

Heads up

33 WCBS

Doing something remarkable 41 NWSC

Reaching Uganda 46

ProSeal Corp

53

Lake Turkana

Kevin W Kirkpatrick Powering Kenya 59 Plipdeco TTAIFA 4 | Endeavour Magazine

Creating change

NWSC

Articles

38 50

Amazing World

January: an origins story Mari Lwyd

Lake Turkana Endeavour Magazine | 5

Written by Alice Instone-Brewer

PROVIDING A LIFELINE TTAIFA chevron-square-right ttaifa.com phone-square +1 868-624-2608

TTAIFA

Entering a new year is a time of fresh starts, of making an effort to organise those areas of one’s life that you’ve kept ‘meaning to get around to’, and of thinking about the future. In such a time, one area people look to is their finances, and in particular, in future-proofing themselves through insurance. The Trinidad & Tobago Association of Insurance & Financial Advisors (TTAIFA) is a not-for-profit organisation that seeks to support advisors in these sectors, giving them the information, training and bolstering they need to do their jobs as well as they can, and therefore to give the people of Trinidad & Tobago the best possible advice. We spoke with Gerald Cruickshank, TTAIFA President, to learn more about the organisation and what it offers.

O

riginally founded in 1975 and known as the Life Underwriters Association of T&T (LUATT), TTAIFA began its life focused around the life insurance industry, and this continues to hold much of its focus. However, the association has since expanded greatly, now assisting a broad scope of insurance sales representatives, financial advisors and sales managers across Trinidad & Tobago. Gerald broke down some of the main areas of support that the association is able to offer these members:

“As an Association, TTAIFA’s primary role and responsibility is the professional development of its membership via our professional development courses, which we run through The American College and LIRMA. As well as continuing professional development, seminars include Law & Regulations, Insurance Business, Ethics, Health & Wellness and New Insurance Act.” Some of TTAIFA’s course titles and certifications include the FSCP (the Financial Services Certified Practitioner); AMTC (Agency Managers Training Course); and MFA (Master Financial Advisor).

“The five leading Life Insurance Companies in Trinidad & Tobago have continued to partner with us since we continuously provide quality professional development to their agents and managers on a regular basis. They witness an increased level of sales results almost immediately after their career agents and managers have completed our programs.”

Always the cornerstone of TTAIFA’s operations, the life insurance industry in Trinidad & Tobago has, like much of the rest of the world, been through a strange two years. The pandemic has caused an unexpected loss of life, which has led to insurance companies facing unexpected claims, and, in a period of uncertainty and fear such as this, clients both with and without policies have been looking to life insurers as a potential source of some security and stability, at least financially, should the worst occur. Gerald talked us through what this time has been like for TTAIFA and its members as a result: “Persons now realise that no one really knows what their death date will be. As such, Insurance Sales Representatives have been strongly advised by our Association and their managers and Companies to continuously touch base with their

8 | Endeavour Magazine

TTAIFA

prospects and clients, to be there for them, since many look to us for advice during these difficult financial times. For many, their cash values have been able to bring some dignity back to their lives, since they have long since depleted their savings during the periods of Lockdown by our Government, where only essential workers were allowed to keep working.”

In terms of business, despite claims being made, Gerald informed us that the past two years have largely been a positive one for Life Insurance.

However, with that comes the more complicated human element, and it is this that TTAIFA seeks to support, and, by supporting its members, it aids its members in supporting others.

“In hindsight, the period of time was challenging.

Still, the staff and board of TTAIFA dealt with it from the onset. They switched all of our courses to online, with the approvals of our programmes’ international awarding bodies, moderators and seminar presenters. We had full administrative and IT support to make the process smoother for all concerned. Our members have all adapted to this new way of doing business and developing themselves professionally online. All insurance

10 | Endeavour Magazine

companies have transitioned their business online, with sales applications being done electronically with electronic signatures. The main positive behind it is that about 98% of our members have expressed that they much prefer to do online course sessions.”

To better facilitate this online approach, the association went about having its website fully redesigned, allowing its members easier access to these courses and seminars, as well as making processes such as registration and payment much smoother. Moving forwards, it aims to offer assistance to Trinidad and Tobago’s regional insurance associations in offering professional development of their members via use of TTAIFA’s online resources.

These courses are not only wise and helpful for insurance professionals to undertake, but in recent years, they, or equivalent courses, have been a legal annual requirement in order for the Central Bank of Trinidad & Tobago to renew these professionals’ licences each year. Given this, it makes TTAIFA’s work even more essential, and makes it essential for the courses offered to not only be of good quality, but be varied and in depth enough that their members can gain something new every year. To that end, Gerald told us that one of the association’s aims for the near future is to develop more courses and seminars for members to select from.

In total, TTAIFA offers support to over 1,200 members. As well as its provision of these training courses and seminars, another way in which it backs these members and offers a boost to moral is through the hosting of an annual National Awards Ceremony for those within the insurance industry, dispensing awards to top agents, sales managers and also TTAIFA’s Student of the Year. As well as this, there are several events and initiatives that the association runs annually, though in 2020, it had to be a little creative to make sure they went forwards: “Our Going Green initiative,” Gerald told us, “Which would have been carried out at the Trincity Mall annually in June, was instead distributed to all insurance branches in the East from Barataria to Arima, where vegetable and fruits seedlings were given to clients who visited these branches on June 26th, 2020.

“As for our annual SEA (Secondary Entrance Assessment) Kit donations, these were only delayed by changing the examination date for 2020.

However, our east chapter was able to deliver kits, which include pens, pencils, rulers, sharpeners and erasers to the neediest children at the Bon-Air Primary Government School & Maloney Government Primary School.”

Live Easy and Go Green!

Developing a workforce that values good business ethics and personal responsibility is no small feat. Salespeople in particular, know the environmental and social impacts of green sustainability. Here is how our top Agents have “gone green”.

Brent Jankie: “We embarked on an electrical upgrade to my current house and with that, I have changed all my bulbs to the LED to reduce my electrical bill.

We also started our own home garden to produce vegetables like lettuce, kale, seasonings, hot peppers, melongene (Eggplant), ochro, and tomatoes; this was really fun as it also brought us together in a common goal.

Cooking at home and reducing our restaurant purchases was something that also changed due to the Covid19 pandemic and I also believe for the better as we engaged in healthier eating. Religious and personal fasting from meat and alcohol with increased exercise and outdoor activities was another great change along with the Guardian Group endorsed wellness app, Virgin Pulse, which motivates me keep on track.

The recycling of cans and plastics, as well as old metals and aluminum, was a practice that our family and by extension my father-in-law engaged in this for quite a while as it created income from this practice.

As it relates to community activities, I would always engage with local businesses and by extension nonprofits to aid in any way.

From food drives to supplying meals for the underprivileged and cleaning up our beaches and rivers during hikes.”

Devika Dass: “In my household the first thing we did was convert our incandescent bulbs to the more energy efficient LED bulbs. This change contributed to reducing the amount of heat generated. We also turn off all the lights in the rooms we don’t use. In different rooms strategically placed mirrors also reflect light giving a brighter look and reducing dark areas without additional lighting.

We have blackout curtains to reduce the amount of heat and light coming into the room during the day time, which means the air-condition unit will expend less energy to cool the room. This has contributed to a reduced electricity bill overall.

When buying groceries, we use re-useable bags to reduce the amount of plastic bags needed to pack and carry. We support our local businesses by buying fresh produce from local vendors as much as possible. Our meats, vegetables and fruits are packed neatly in the refrigerator so there is no confusion in looking for the meal items. This reduces the amount of time the refrigerator is opened and closed for meal preparations. Unused pulp from juicing is also used as natural fertilizer in my plants.

We also invested in a water mug with replaceable filters and re-useable water bottles so we don’t have to buy water. Due to our location, we are very cognizant of water use and wastage. Water comes to our area twice a week so we have been very conservative with usage from day one.

We discuss our activities and errands for the coming week and consolidate them in order to minimize driving in the same area multiple times. We save a lot of time and fuel by doing this.

I have consolidated my time more efficiently, thanks to the digital tools Guardian Life has provided. Those tools have enabled me to digitize a large part of my business with regards to presentations, meetings, servicing existing clients’ portfolios and reaching out to prospective clients.

As we move forward, I am positive we will find new and even more innovative ways to reduce our carbon footprint.”

Clementine Jardine: “We have reduced our purchase of bottled water and instead use water from our refrigerator dispenser which is filtered. “

Sandra Ramjit: “Reducing the carbon footprint is very important to my family and me. We have “gone local”. Our kitchen garden boasts of ginger, aloe vera, mint, mango, spinach, pimento and hot peppers, tomatoes, etc., which allow us to use our home-grown fruits and vegetable with no pesticides. This venture has also facilitated us to build a compost which means that we use the organic waste like potato skin, banana peels, etc., to grow our local food. Due to this measure, we cook more as the food is flavourful and mouth-watering.

I love smoothies, and in the past, would purchase frozen fruits and vegetables from a local membership warehouse. Currently, I use local fruits and vegetables like pineapple, watermelon, beetroot, bananas and pumpkin which makes an absolutely delicious and nourishing smoothie that I am sure that you will rush to enjoy.

This simple measure is not only reducing the carbon footprint, but also improving my health, as I am more active and energetic.

Just remember your health is your wealth!”

Nasha Adheen: “Two things that my family has decided to do differently are: 1. Eat more home grown products (from our kitchen garden) 2. Use LED bulbs throughout our home

Kern Rodriguez: “In an attempt to reduce the carbon footprint of my family and myself, we would have taken the following steps.

We started a kitchen garden where we grow our own vegetables and started doing more home cooked meals as a result. We would have switched to purchasing the bigger bottles of water rather than the little ones and will also install water filters on the kitchen tap in an attempt to reduce the amount of plastic waste. We also started separating our plastic waste from the other garbage so that we can utilized the iCare bins closest to us. All bulbs in our house has been changed to LED for maybe the past 3 years. With the current pandemic it would have pushed use into using more virtual platforms for work and school hence drastically reducing our need for commute.”

Tara Lal-Chan: “My family and I have taken measures in all aspect of life, such as food, water, home, travelling, wellness and community.

For example, I started a kitchen garden since April 2020 where I grow peppers, chadon beni, chive, patchoi and tomatoes. We also have a meatless Thursday.

We lock off the shower during soaping and also wash the cars using a bucket and not a hose.

I have changed all bulbs in my home to LED and disconnect all chargers when not in use.

Travelling time has reduced considerably because of the introduction of virtual meetings.

Online banking is another feature that we make avid use of.

Regarding wellness, I exercise 5 times per week on a regular basis and always try to use organic or home grown food.

I support my community to the fullest regarding commerce transactions and general upkeep and upliftment of my neighbourhood.

Providing a lifeline

Another event that TTAIFA had planned was its seminar for the Day of Common Concern (DOCC). In 2020, this event had its first-ever virtual seminar instead. “Like everything else, we became creative to keep things ongoing. A virtual health fair was conducted and it was well-received by all attendees, including the CARAIFA Secretary-General.

Our virtual session entitled ‘DOCC: Health Care Facts’ was presented by Dr Hassina Mohammed, Transplant Procurement Manager at Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex. A committee headed

by Mr. Williams, our DOCC representative, along with the chapter’s Presidents, coordinated the print and sales for DOCC Jersey as a donation toward the course.”

Annually our TTAIFA South Chapter hosts a Post Budget Discussion with Senior Economists on the effects of the Budget on the Economy trends of Trinidad & Tobago. Also in October 2021 TTAIFA in conjunction with the Local Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) Country Chairperson, produced and hosted the very first T&T MDRT Day Seminar which was done virtually and was attended by over 500 Sales Representatives and Managers. The Million Dollar Round Table is a global and independent association that consists of over 60,000 life Insurance agents and Financial Advisors worldwide.

re-elected for the 2021 to 2023 term of office.

“Currently, I am also an Executive Director of the Caribbean Association of Insurance & Financial Advisors (CARAIFA), headquartered in Jamaica. All regional associations are members of CARAIFA.” An association structured around the support of others who, in turn, must advise the public reliably on what can be a difficult subject, it is important that this culture of support begins from the top downwards. For Gerald, this has always been the right approach: “I am servant-oriented leader; I serve my staff and always include them in the planning process, because I value everyone’s opinion, and they know that from the onset.

“Success is achieved with humility, a great attitude and synchronised teamwork from every member of the organisation, so that we can achieve our goals together.” Wise words, and ones that bode well for the attitude of guidance and aid offered

by TTAIFA to its members, its staff and Trinidad and Tobago’s wider insurance industry.

Moving forwards, one last initiative that the association has recently become involved with is Life Insurance Awareness Month – aka, the month of September. September was first dubbed Life Insurnace Awareness Month around 50 years ago, and for the past three years, TTAIFA has been getting involves. It plans to continue to do so. “We aim to help educate the public on the importance of Life Insurance for themselves and their family’s financial future,” Gerald told us. This was, and will continue to be, achieved through media campaigns for both newspaper and television.

Speaking with Gerald, we asked him a little about his own journey with this association. Now President, he has been with TTAIFA in different capacities since 1994, and began his career in insurance in 1989. “I joined the organisation about 26 years ago and served on many committees.

Then I was elected to senior positions on a chapter level before being elected to the National Board as an Assistant Secretary.” After this, Gerald was appointed the Secretary-Treasurer, the Education Chair, then moved up to Vice President. He first became President for a 2015-2017 term, then we Endeavour Magazine | 15

Written by Alice Instone-Brewer

READY FOR ANYTHING Medcorp Ltd chevron-square-right medcorpltd.com

Medcorp Ltd

Medcorp Limited is more than merely a successful private healthcare company – it is an entity that has turned around the trends of how the people of Trinidad & Tobago approach their health, as well as set a new and exacting bar of excellence when it comes to delivery and expertise.

We had the privilege to interview Dr Achong Low, one of Medcorp’s founders, and a well-known name in medicine in his own right, to learn how Medcorp became what it is today:

“F

irst of all,” Achong explains, “The physical building of Medcorp Limited is the oldest healthcare building in the country of Trinidad and Tobago. It is more than 100 years in existence. Of course, it has been under different names and different owners. We took over from a group of owners, who had not quite made a great success of it.” This group had given the entity the name Medcorp Ltd and its trade name St Clair Medical Centre. “The trade name is a very wellknown name in the country,” Achong told us.

“We took over St Clair Medical on January 1st 1994, and when we took over, we essentially changed the entire trend in the country of how well-to-do people sought medical care.

Prior to us, when they got ill, anyone who could afford it left the country to go to Florida or the UK to seek medical help. We took over in the January, and by October of 1994, people would stop on their way to the airport and ask us whether they should go abroad or stay in Trinidad. The trend was that they would come to St Clair Medical.”

Turning a trend this strong around in less than a year is remarkable, especially when it comes to asking the public to trust a recently turned-around reputation with their health. We asked Achong how this rapid shift was achieved: “Trinidad and Tobago is a small place! It’s about 1.4 million people; even before social media, we had what you could call the ‘Trini Mouth’. We spread news really fast in this country!” Word of mouth is only part of the explanation, however. Medcorp needed to inspire people’s faith and guarantee strong results, and the company founders - Dr Abraham Alexander and Dr Achong Low himself – weren’t interested in providing anything short of excellence. Many companies claim this, but in Medcorp’s case, they truly put this principle into practice: “We were highly selective. We wanted ten physicians, with a collective background of at least six specialties, and each person needed to be in the top three names of their field in the country.

We approached these people, and when we were finished, we had a core of ten physicians who ran the gamut from obstetrics, gynecology, orthopedics, general surgery, cardiology, anesthesiology, dentistry and general practice. That is the core nucleus that we established.”

18 | Endeavour Magazine

Ready for anything

The company was seeking high-volume specialties, but if there was a specialty in which they couldn’t not find someone who lived up the high bar they had set then they opted to have nothing rather than offer anything sub-par. Since this starting point, has gone on to attract many strong teams, like urology, ENT, neurosurgery, to name a few. As time passed, they moved forward to expand into new areas, but always making sure that the highest standard remained uncompromised.

“We had the crème de la crème of the medical community in the country. In fact, we incepted many things that people felt could not be done.

For example, two months after we took over, we opened the first private sector 24/7 accident and emergency department in the country. Until that time, this service only existed in the public sector.”

The high standards by which Medcorp headhunted its top team have remained in place for the 28 years since, not wavering: “What sets us apart is this: it is purely the desire for standards and quality,” Achong tells us with well-deserved pride.

“Pretty much every physician who works at MedCorp

will not forgive on standards and quality, and that is why they work here. There are many physicians who feel a little overawed by our demand for quality, so they will not come to ask for admitting privileges.

If we detect that a physician is either not up to standard in expertise or human behavior, we will ask them to leave: not many people are accustomed to that kind of yardstick.”

Asking for ‘admitting privileges’ was another inception of Medcorp’s within the country: “Prior to that,” Achong explained, “People would just show up and say ‘I would like to work in your hospital’, and the people running the hospital would say ‘Ok!’ and anything went. Now, we will vet your CV, we will check your references and recommendations, and when we do give you admittance privileges, it we find out you aren’t really up to mark, we ask you to leave.”

This is the only sensible way to maintain, encourage and safe-guard a high reputation and quality within the hospital body, and yet it was a new system within the country that set Medcorp and St Clair Medical apart from neighboring hospitals. “In fact, I will tell you,” Achong shares with us, on the topic of

Endeavour Magazine | 19

Medcorp Ltd

Medcorp’s reputation: “We have a name board with all of our physicians on a prominent front wall in our institution. Every physician wants their name on that board, even if they do not work with us. These are the things that tell us where we are in terms of the regard of the community.”

Staying on top doesn’t just mean maintaining standards within the team, either, but maintaining, and ever-expanding, the services that Medcorp can offer. Around eight years after it launched, the hospital found itself in competition with another private contender in their north-western part of the country, but where they continued to outstrip this rival was in their services. Another key mark was international accreditation: “Until a couple of years ago, you had a body called QHA Trent in the UK, and we are the only private hospital entity in the Englishspeaking Caribbean that were accredited by them.

It’s not that other hospitals don’t want it – they just don’t have the standards to achieve it.”

In terms of services, we asked Achong to talk us through the history of Medcorp’s growth outwards from its original core practices: “Around 19992000, we put in place a state-of-the-art ICU unit.

Our intention was to do open heart surgery. Open heart surgery was being done by a private company in the public sector, but only by this company. So, we partnered with that private company, Caribbean Heart Care. (Now Carribean Heart Care Medcorp ltd.) The results in that open heart program, I tell without hyperbole, it is as good or better as any of the best centres in the world.” Achong says this on the authority of Professor Gianni D Angelini, BHF Professor of Cardiac Surgery and Director, Bristol Medical School, who is in fact the head of Medcorp’s open heart surgery program. “He’s world renowned, particularly on the east side of the world.”

“After that, we looked at what services were deficient in the country at large, not just in the private sector. The need for state-of-the-art radiotherapy services was dire. So, in 2006, we built a state-of-the-art radiotherapy center, which exists to this day. Here, we service patients who would otherwise leave the country. Now, very few people leave the country to access this treatment.”

For all that Medcorp has thrown itself into being the best that it can be, in some areas, its hands are tied, not through any lack of ability on the company’s part, but through the limitations of supply. “We do have one limitation: the ability to maintain and refurbish our equipment at a moment’s notice. Something like robotic surgery, for instance – we attempted to bring it into the country, but we 20 | Endeavour Magazine

have not done so, because the company said that they are so busy internationally in the first world countries that they will not be able to service us.

Otherwise. something you’ve spent millions of dollars on is potentially just sitting idly – it wouldn’t be viable.”

This shows the true importance of a reliable supply chain, and Medcorp is fortunate enough to benefit from many reliable suppliers. Everything from physical equipment to specific medicines, the hospital must procure, and must be able to trust will arrive on time and up to standard. Park Distributors are one of just many such companies. “We get some of our pharmaceutical preparations from them.

They provide a broad range of drugs for people suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes, etc. We are fortunate to benefit from many such wonderful distributors.”

To not only create, but maintain, Medcorp’s extremely high standards across a range of challenging disciplines implies a great deal of passion, not only from its founders and leadership, but throughout its staff. We asked Achong about where this passion and drive comes from: “I was born in Trinidad, but I am trained in McGill University

Committed To The Enhancement of Quality Control Performance Proud to work with and support MEDCORP

Ready for anything

in Montreal, Canada. I’m in obstetrics gynecology, and my entire training was all predicated on a North American standard. We did whatever was needed for the patient. So, the will, the desire to have a centre in Trinidad & Tobago that could always be held on par with North America and the UK - that was our intention, that was our dream. The doctors that we invited to us were all people with the same desire, who wanted to bring all the things that they learnt abroad, all of the skills, into the country so we could utilize it.”

Now, it’s impossible to interview a major medical facility at the moment, with 2021 only just behind us, without asking about the past two years. Covid affected every person, every industry, in one way or another, but a major hospital could not go without needing to meet the questions and challenges raised by the pandemic head-on. Given Medcorp’s standards, expertise and its culture of preparedness, we asked Achong how Medcorp was affected and how the company responded: “From the very start, we have always been in front of the 8-ball. We run a very practical sort of system inside of here. When people said we have a viral pandemic, that was not an entirely new event.

Endeavour Magazine | 21

Medcorp Ltd

We’ve had SARS and MERS. So, about a month before the public-held authorities told us to, we set up a screening tent to screen incoming staff and patients for temperature etc. (This was before the world had any test methods to readily identify someone with the Covid infection) We always looked to the front, as to how to deal with these things - we’re always a step ahead. It’s not reactionary: it’s done with a bit of foresight.”

The start of the pandemic saw a massive drop in patient volumes for Medcorp, as elective surgeries were halted, and anyone exhibiting even two of the eight possible symptoms of Covid was required to attend a public hospital instead of continuing with the care they had originally come to Medcorp for.

“All the covid-positive patients, the public system preferred that they take care of them, because they wanted to sort of own the whole problem and sort it out. It was quite devastating.”

Due to Medcorp’s links and partnerships with Trinidad’s top medical companies, it came to light that its labs were in collaboration with the labs responsible for developing the islands’ PCR tests.

In a bid to save revenues, Medcorp therefore took the initiative and began to use these tests

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www.ansamcal.com 22 | Endeavour Magazine

to effectively screen patients, including it’s A&E patients who would otherwise need to be sent away when requiring attention, but taking this lead on this drew some head from the Ministry of Health.

Medcorp persisted, however:

“We did not stop. They did not realise that the Ministry of Health could not undertake the vastness of this problem on their own.

Everyone had to contribute to help. We were the first to brave the task, and when we did, we were threatened, but we did not stop, because we knew what we were doing.” In time, the Ministry acquiesced and upon the government sanctioned certification of the hospital lab the company was able to continue to test its patients safely In part, the ability to make choices like this are due to Medcorp’s unshakable reputation as an institution, and also because of the individual reputations of its team. For example, Dr Achong Low is a known name: whilst he says that people in Trinidad & Tobago wouldn’t know his face, they are aware of who he is: “Way back in 1985, I delivered what

Ready for anything

is today the only pair of surviving Siamese twins in Trinidad and Tobago who are separated and live normal lives. They have been separated since they were 11 months old. Now, they’re 36 years old, and they live in Toronto Canada. All of that was arranged by myself because of my background training.”

With this sort of public clout, Medcorp is able to stand its ground and fight its corner for what it feels is needed. These sort of calls – only keeping staff who meet a high bar, innovating to calmly respond to a crisis, expanding its practices to meet the needs of the country and encourage ‘health tourists’ to stay and spend locally – all of this benefits not only individuals, but Trinidad & Tobago as a whole. During the pandemic, as Achong told us, “Not a single one of our staff was laid off, bonuses were paid both years, and everyone in the workplace feels secure in terms of the protection they are afforded.” As for the wider picture, in looking after both their people and their patients, Achong and Medcorp will not be moved: “We will do whatever we feel is the right thing to do. If we are doing something that is right, that is helping the patient, there is no way we will stop. I have all my facts, all my data. If we feel that

something is the right thing to do – that it’ll help the country, help the patient – then we will do it” Starting from late January this year, Medcorp will finally begin treating Covid patients. Far from the public sector wishing to handle this itself, it is now overwhelmed by demand, and so Medcorp has been converting a new facility that it already had under construction into a safe, separate Covid building. As for its future plans, Achong told us; “In the next 3-5 years, we are going to have more physicians on site, plus we are going to open a little further afield in terms of acquisition of pre-existing private centers in strategic parts of the country.” It is the Medcorp name and reputation that draws people in – by doing what it has proven that it can do in the past, the company plans to acquire and improve facilities until they are at a high enough quality to bear the Medcorp name. As we’ve seen, that standard will be high, and people will undoubtedly flood to these new facilities for the same reliable service they know they can currently receive from this gamechanging, leading name in Caribbean healthcare.

Endeavour Magazine | 23

Written by Alice Instone-Brewer

HEADS UP SANBS chevron-square-right https://sanbs.org.za phone-square 011 761 9000

SANBS

Less than 1% of South Africans are active blood donors, and once taken, blood only lasts 42 days before it must be disposed of. Now, more than ever, we are acutely aware of the importance of a smoothly operating health service: with over 99% of the population that may need to receive blood not donating any, this gives you a quick idea of the challenges faced by the South African Blood Service (SANBS) on a daily basis.

S

ANBS is a world leader in its field. Using advanced technology and proactive, efficient systems, the organisation makes sure that the South African health service has all of the blood it needs to carry out treatments and save lives. We caught up with the organisation to find out how they stay on top of this responsibility, including the application of its high-flying technological arsenal.

Since its formation in 2002, the South African National Blood Service has seen its operations grow substantially. Originally formed in a merger between several separate blood transfusion services, SANBS is now renowned for the expertise of its medical professionals, its high-tech facilities and its stringent safety procedures, and has become one of the brightest examples of a blood service in the world. As a not-for-profit organisation that is free from shareholders and private sector involvement, SANBS is able to re-invest all of its profits back into the organisation, with the desire to improve service and safety being the only driver.

Plentiful blood reserves mean that seriously ill patients can undergo surgery, mothers-tobe can receive blood transfusions when going into labour, and those in need of emergency treatment can receive it. Blood is the key resource needed for South Africa’s medical and emergency care system to operate effectively, and it is SANBS that acts as the bastion that protects its effective collection, screening and distribution.

One of the greatest challenges for SANBS, apart from low donor numbers, is South Africa’s wide reach. These two challenges combine together into a mountain of a task. The country’s population is spread across a large area, with many communities living in remote locations that are far from any major cities or towns. The organisation has 25 facilities, as well as multiple mobile blood units stationed within shopping centres, holiday resorts and secondary schools. However, whilst these are more than sufficient when it comes to blood collection, the delivery of blood to remote health facilities is a different issue and calls for a far faster, all-encompassing reach. SANBS has its fleet of vehicles, but in its latest expansion into new technology, it has begun trialling the application of another, faster form of vehicle that can get to the hardest-to-reach places.

26 | Endeavour Magazine

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SANBS

Globally, drone technology is being applied to more and more industries. From military operations to essential industries such agriculture or construction, and even emergency services such as firefighting and the police, drones have proven themselves to be game-changers in many an operation, thanks to their height, quick speeds, manoeuvrable size and the affordability of using them.

In the face of South Africa’s widespread, hard-toreach population, drone technology is a potential life-saver. SANBS has developed the use of drones to both deliver blood and to collect blood samples in an emergency situation. The organisation’s twofold strategy is the first of its kind in the world, using drones to transport emergency, universal ‘O negative’ blood to patients in need, and secondly, to transport a sample of the patients’ blood to a SANBS facility and return with the appropriate type.

Currently, drones would be able to carry up to four units of blood at a time, though future designs might be able to improve on this. In the current design, these drones can fly at a height of up to 100 metres, which allows it to travel as the crow flies

30 | Endeavour Magazine

over most terrain. SANBS has developed this plan in cooperation with Western Cape Blood Service (WCBS), as well as with the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) to secure licensing and airspace.

SANBS is in a strong position compared to where it began, collecting six times the amount of blood it used to, despite bumps in the road along the way. However, supply can still be an issue, with only around 500,000 of South Africa’s 53 million inhabitants donating blood. 20% of these donors are secondary school students, which also means that supply levels drop over school holiday periods such as Easter and Christmas.

SANBS has invested in many mobile units with which to lead drives throughout the country, which are able to tackle this shortage. However, there are further expenses and challenges in obtaining this essential resource. For example, hepatitis and HIV are both prevalent in many areas of the country, and this must be screened for in every unit of blood donated to SANBS. This process takes place in SANBS’ state of the art laboratories and costs the organisation R500,000 a day.

Heads up

This is a small price to pay for a safe and reliable blood supply, but it is one of the many areas in which SANBS can never relax its standards. When it comes to a resource as precious and essential as donated blood, the organisation can never have an ‘off’ day – it must consistently meet every stringent standard, and it goes without saying that in such a health and safety conscious industry, the South Africa National Blood Service is highly regulated.

All nurses and technicians employed by the organisation are continuously trained and registered with a statutory council who ensure that necessary high standards are maintained. Due to the risk of staff coming into contact with individuals infected with hepatitis B or HIV, employees are immunised for hepatitis B and only the highest quality protective equipment is permitted, such as needles with protective sheaths and specialist medical gloves. Any concerns that a member of staff may have contracted HIV from a donor will see them receive prophylactic treatment immediately.

In every way it can, SANBS is striving to be the best that it can be. If drones are able to be utilized in this innovative way, then location should no longer have the definitive impact it currently has on whether or not a South African resident receives the full care that they need, which will go a long way to combat one of the forms of social and economic inequality faced by the varied population. Blood is yet another frontier on the road to greater economic freedom and equal opportunity in the wide-spread country – one that might not come immediately to mind, but one that, in an emergency, could be the decider between life and death.

Endeavour Magazine | 31

Written by Alice Instone-Brewer

DOING SOMETHING REMARKABLE WCBS chevron-square-right www.wcbs.org.za phone-square 021 507 6300

The Procleix Panther system featuring ART provides enhanced levels of automation for laboratories in a compact footprint without compromising throughput. It combines the proven and reliable performance of the Procleix Panther system with software and hardware improvements. Innovative optional components, such as full track connectivity and remote monitoring, can be installed to optimize variable workflow needs now or in the future.

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WCBS

Whilst we’ve spoken with the South African National Blood Service (SANBS) a number of times, there is another dedicated blood service that operations as a not-for-profit organisation in South Africa, this one operating throughout the country’s Western Cape. Working together to share the burden, the Western Cape Blood Service (WCBS) and SANBS see to the country’s needs together, which SANBS focusing outside of the Cape, and WCBS focusing in on this highly populated part of the country, including the busy port city of Cape Town.

B

lood donation is a challenging, expensive field world-wide, and definitely so in South Africa. With only a very small fraction of the population acting as donors, and, due to the presence of HIV and various other diseases or conditions, there are sadly many who cannot donate, even if they would wish to. Every donation must be tested to make sure it is suitable for safe use, which costs money; all in all, it is a thinly spread operating, but one that saves lives. As such, it never rests, and the work of WCBS is no exception.

As the company states, “It’s our goal to deliver a world-class blood service in the Western Cape – and we’re getting there, with the help of our dedicated donors.”

WCBS says of itself that it “works without prejudice to supply safe blood and blood products to all communities in the region”. In a country with such a stark divide in wealth, divide in fixed vs informal housing, and, in recent history, divides in race, this is a valuable ideal.

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Doing Something Remarkable

Every year, WCBS collects more than 165,000 units of safe blood, which is then used to aid more than 495,000 people. The organisation strictly follows WHO guidance in all it does, as well as holding South African National Accreditation System accreditation. Staying up-to-date with these regulations takes constant vigilance and attention to detail – especially as the organisation was founded back in October 1938, when the processes were quite different and far simpler. The only mode of transfusion at this time meant doing so directly from donor to patient. Compared to the complex logistics, refrigeration needs and organization that goes into today’s blood bank storage and transportation, the group’s systems are almost unrecognizable! (Though, it is much simpler, in many ways, to move blood rather than a donor!)

From small beginnings come great things. Far from its 165,000 annual units, when it first began, WCBS stared life by only received 200 donors of its first three months of operation, which supported a humble 30 transfusions a month. However, only the following year, its activity and its necessity would sour, due to the events of the Second World War. The blood service was, thankfully, already established and in a position to provide blood to military hospitals.

During the war, this raised reliance and demand saw the organisation move to its own building, where it could process more donors at the same time. This move took place in 1942, and by 1942, the donor base has ground from 200 to 1,394, with 182 transitions happening a month. By this stage, blood was collected and tested – though, rather than the vials and bags we known today, it was contained in (washed out) milk bottles!

IN 1949, a fear years after the war had ended, WCBS finally hit the road. Investing in a mobile unit, the organisation was finally able to travel around the Cape in search of donors, rather than relying on finding them in the city.

These days, WCBS has grown from this starting point to being one of the most technologically advanced blood services in the continent. This transition began in the 1960s, when the organisation hired its first technical staff. At this stage, it was processing over 50,000 donors a year. From taking on technicians to expanding its technology, in 1967, the organisation moved location to a much larger hub, from which to carry out a new range of processes,

as were supported by the latest technology at the time: this included cross-matching, serological testing, biochemistry and plasma aspiration, as well as the donor grouping that they had been previously carrying out. By the end of the 60s, WCSB was distribution 7,000 units of blood per month, as well as carrying out these tests and processes in its new, dedicated labs.

In the ‘70s, plastic saw previously glass contains become lighter and more durable, and the entirety of the lab’s technology became slimmer and more streamlined in comparison to what it had been. Plastic was not only cheaper, lighter and harder to break, but it also allowed for the more accurate separation of components, which boosted the accuracy of testing. This decade also saw the introduction of Hepatitis B testing, and the establishing of the continent’s first-ever Cell Separation clinic.

Many more such advances and expansions of capabilities came over the decades: in 1976, the founding of WCSB’s scientific division and the installation of the first automated blood grouping analyser; in 1978, the first bank for frozen red blood cells; 1980, Human Leukocyte Antigen and paternity testing; and notably, in 1985, in response to the tragic HIV and AIDs epidemic, a new facility especially for HIV testing.

Despite fears that surrounded the latter, WCBS made a significant step towards upholding its value of operating without discrimination by changing its donor acceptance rules to allow donations from men who choose male sexual partners. Notably, the rulings on donor acceptance today call for donors to only come forwards if they have had safe sexual conduct in the past few months, with the rules making no mention of the gender of any party. Safety is paramount – especially in a country combating various blood-borne diseases – but a part of safety comes from correct and unbiased information.

In this, WCBS has been true to its word, and likewise, in its development over time, it has repeatedly pushed to be the most beneficial and advanced organisation it can be. With the hard work of its staff and the continued generosity of its donors, WCBS is able to do its bit to protect the Western Cape and the people in it, come rain or shine, in the face of pandemics and epidemics alike. Its company slogan calls potential donors and supports to “Do something remarkable”, but the organisation is definitely earning that term itself.

Endeavour Magazine | 37

Amazing World

Written by James Lapping

JANUARY: AN ORIGINS STORY

I

t is without a doubt that if you are in the Western world, every year in your lifetime will have started on the same month; January. For much of the world, January 1st symbolizes the start of a new year and along with this may come some half-hearted New Year’s resolutions such as a diet, getting in shape, or maybe even committing to some sincere changes in your life. But how did this come about?

Why do we celebrate the start of a new year in January, and why do we, without fail, always insist on a fresh start in this month?

The current calendar in use is the Gregorian calendar, which was introduced by Pope Gregory in 1582AD. This was a slight update to the prior Julian calendar, which was introduced by Roman emperor Julius Caesar in 46BC, which was the first calendar to fully acknowledge an accurate solar year.

38 | Endeavour Magazine

Neptune and Venus. However, a lesser-known God, Janus, is where the word January derives from. It is well established that the Roman Empire ripped off the prior Greek Empire in many ways (technology, gods, laws), but Janus is an original Roman god to which the Greeks had no equivalent. Janus is a God that is representative of new beginnings, duality and of doorways. He is usually depicted as a twofaced head with a beard. This representation shows the literal duality of Janus, as he was able to look into the past and into the future too, and this figure could be seen embellished on many ceremonial gateways in cities throughout the Roman Empire.

The Roman word for gateways was Jani and is where Janus’ name derives from.

January has represented a time of transition for over 2000 years now. In Russia and the countries of the Former Soviet Union, this is when they celebrate their Christmas. The beginning of the New Year is also when Scotland Celebrates Hogmanay, and it is the end of Kwanzaa for African Americans. Later on in the month, the third Monday in January now celebrates the life and teachings of civil rights activist Martin Luther King, who fought until his death for change and a new beginning in race relations

In the Julian calendar, January was known as Ianuarius, as the Latin alphabet at that time didn’t include the letter J. It is believed that January (along with February), were first introduced as months as far back at 713BC by King Numa Pompilius, the legendary successor to the even more legendary Romulus, of Romulus and Remus fame. Since then, January has always been considered the start of the year in Western/Christian societies; however, for a brief time in the Medieval period, Christian New Year’s feasts sometimes happened in December and in March too.

Before January and February were added to the Roman calendar, March was in fact the first month of the year and is still considered a New Year to this day by Hindus, Sikhs and numerous other cultures based in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

So where did the name January come from?

Again, we must go back to the Roman Empire for this.

Many of the gods worshipped by the Romans are still household names in the 21st Century, such as, Mars,

The legacy of Janus still maintains itself today, as January continues to represent an opportunity to begin the year in new health. Alongside the standard new year’s resolutions, many initiatives have been created to spur people onto a better and happier life. These include Dry January, a challenge where people attempt to stop drinking alcohol for a month, with the hope of cutting future alcohol consumption to a minimum or even completely. A similar health boost can be seen in Veganuary, a challenge where people attempt to curb their meat consumption, leading to a healthier diet, as well as helping reduce carbon emissions.

Of course, the month also consists of some whackier and less symbolic days, including National Spaghetti Day, National Hugging Day and Thomas Crapper Day (inventor or the U-bend in modern toilets). That be as it may, if you’re starting 2022 this month, then the chances are, you’ve given some thought to ‘leaving 2021 behind’; potentially taking the good memories and lessons with you, but also looking hopefully to the future. Looking in both directions like this on January 1st is extremely Janus-like of you!

Endeavour Magazine | 39

Written by Alice Instone-Brewer

REACHING UGANDA NWSC chevron-square-right www.nwsc.co.ug

NWSC

50 years after it was founded, NWSC – the National Water & Sewage Corporation of Uganda – celebrates its golden anniversary this year.

To mark the celebration, we spoke with Dr Eng. Silver Mugisha, NWSC’s Managing Director, to learn more about the corporation and what its journey has been like for its first 50 years of success.

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T

he National Water & Sewage Corporation of Uganda is a government-owned utility that seeks to one day provide its services for the whole of the nation, striving to make sure that all in Uganda have the water services they need, and reliably so. Currently, it operates in 260 towns and urban centres throughout Uganda, whilst the Ministry of Water and Environment ensure that water services reach the country’s rural areas. However, after 50 years of activity, NWSC’s goals remain twofold: to continue to deliver upon its services by maintaining its current smoothness of operation, and to achieve a sustainable path of accelerated growth in order to better do so in the future.

We asked Silver, who has been NWSC’s Managing Director for eight years and with the corporation for a total of 27 years, what he felt were the biggest challenges in providing these essential water services to the nation. He listed rapid population growth and urbanization, which he explained put a strain on the existing infrastructure; climate change, which he described as having affected water sources; and a deteriorating quality in raw water due to people’s polluting activities in the catchment areas. On top of this, illegal water use that leads to a loss of revenue. However, despite all of these challenges and hurdles, Silver spoke proudly of NWSC and its many innovations and strengths that allow it to persist and meet these head-on:

“National Water is unique in prioritising innovative approaches to its service delivery. We are using in-house IT solutions; innovative financing solutions; embracing online customer service; we have established an NWSC news and information online portal, and are in the process of launching the NWSC TV. We operate with the mantra ‘Water for all, for a delighted customer by a delighted workforce.’”

On top of this mantra, the company’s official mission statement is; “To sustainably and equitably provide cost-effective, quality water and sewerage services while conserving the environment and enhancing stakeholder trust.” This is a thorough mission to take on, requiring excellence from every area of the business. No wonder the company vision is to be the “leading customer service-oriented utility in the world.” If it achieves all this, it very well could be.

Reaching Uganda

Regarding this delighted workforce, we spoke with Silver about NWSC’s team. With over 4000 members of staff, the company has seen how essential it is to have a well-trained and dedicated team, and this means looking after your employees and providing them the opportunity to enrich themselves. The company already has an International Resource Centre through which its employees are provided with management and leadership training, whilst vocational training is provided at the Gaba Vocational Skills Development Facility. There are also plans in motion for NWSC to host The African Water Academy, which will be a centre of excellence for capacity development in the water and sanitation sector in the whole African continent. “NWSC as an institution believes that a well-trained workforce is the cornerstone of improved service delivery,” Silver told us. “This has been demonstrated by prioritising skilling and workforce development as a key strategic priority area in the Corporations NWSC Corporate plan, 2021-2024. The corporation has put in place transparent recruitment, development and retention programs which offer opportunities to all without discrimination.”

This Corporate Plan that Silver mentioned is aligned with a wider plan of the Ugandan government, designed with the aim of transforming the nation’s economy into one that is modern and prosperous.

Regarding such development, the company has recently completed work on a new plant. Silver told us more about it: “We have recently completed works for the Katosi Drinking Water Treatment Plant and Katosi-Kampala Transmission Mains Projects which are part of the wider Kampala Water – Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Project. The project’s main objective is to improve the living conditions of the residents in the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area through provision of safe and reliable water supply services.” The new plant’s capacity is designed to be 160,000m³/day, with room for future expansion to 240,000m³/day.

As well as this recent achievement, another project has seen NWSC construct the largest waste water treatment plant in East Africa, the Nakivubo Waste Water Treatment Plant, which boasts an incredible capacity of 45,000m3/day.

With 50 years of experience behind the corporation, we asked Silver what he felt had been the NWSC’s key to its success and stability thus far.

“Over the years, a number of strategic management undertakings have been implemented, keeping the Endeavour Magazine | 43

NWSC

corporation at the top of her game,” he explained.

In total, the projects are numerous: stakeholder engagement and customer reconnection programes have sought to reach out to the public both through media campaigns and through reaching out directly to existing customers.

Meanwhile, other areas aim to improve the functionality of NWSC’s services, whether it’s addressing the key factors hindering revenue growth or water supply. Water supply stabalisation plans seek to replace and install booster pumps, standby generators and other equipment needed to ensure that water supply continues even in the case of power outages or other emergencies. These same plans also entails several quick-win investments in water production and supply infrastructure, again in order to improve supply reliability. In addition to this, a Service Coverage Acceleration Project focuses on “ensuring universal and equitable access to safe water supply in all villages under NWSC jurisdiction”.

Some of these initiatives read as a list of CSR projects as much as business-improving ventures, but that’s just it: operating responsibly, for the good of Uganda as well as itself, is central to how NWSC operates. “Corporate Social Responsibility

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is integrated into the corporations’ business model. The Corporation is engaged in supporting charitable causes for education and health, among others.” These include the corporation’s Urban ProPoor Project, which “ensures that the urban, poor and less privileged receive water and sanitation services at an affordable price using public NWSC water taps.” It is also striving the plant 10 million trees – an ambitious aim that seeks to assist in tackling climate change. Finally, on the matter of green living, as Silver told us, “The corporation has also partnered with the Ministry of Water and Environment and other local governments to control the pollution of water sources.”

Like all industries, water services encountered additional strains to navigate and endure during the Covid pandemic, but with almost half a century of experience, NWSC was able to rise to the challenge. “It is a tough time that required and still requires innovation and resilience to navigate through the challenges presented by COVID-19. As you know, water is one of the essential services that the National Task Force has identified in the fight against the pandemic. The corporation came up with a robust business continuity plan.

Key among this was the safety and the livelihoods of our staff. We provided all staff with information and protective equipment required to ensure their personal safety and that of our customers. We also made a decision not lay off anyone because of the economic downturn.”

This final choice, to stand by its staff during the difficult period, was a wise as well as caring choice from NWSC’s leadership, looking at the long-term rather than the short-term. Longterm, this choice allowed NWSC to return to work with a fully train, complete body of staff when it was required again. In part, the choice was made possible by support of the Ugandan government’s wider body and the support it provided during the pandemic: “The government provided clearheaded leadership.

They granted our staff exemptions to travel and work during the lockdown because they were classified as essential staff. The government also continued to pay its water bills, which revenue is important in running our operations.”

As well as support from the government, NWSC also relied on strong leadership, for even a dedicated and well-trained team like this corporation has

Reaching Uganda

requires a clear voice during a time of uncertainty.

Thankfully, with a career within NWSC since 1994 and eight years as Managing Director, Silver was in a solid position from which to respond as his team needed. “I believe in authentic leadership.

The Harvard Business Review 10 Must-Reads on Leadership (2011) included an article by Bill George, Peter Sims, Andrew N. McLean and Diana Mayer on ‘Discovering your Authentic Leadership’. This article points out that authentic leadership is concerned with demonstrating passion for purpose, practicing values consistently, and leading with hearts as well as heads.

“Authentic leadership helps to establish longterm, meaningful relationships and creates self-determination to achieve results. It also helps leaders to know who they are and what they stand for. They act on that awareness by practicing their values and principles, sometimes at substantial risk to themselves.

They balance their motivations so that they are driven by these inner values as much as by a desire for external rewards or recognition.

Authentic leaders also keep a strong support team around them, ensuring that they live integrated, grounded lives.”

This is passionately put, and shows Silver’s dedication to both his team and his industry. “I have been passionate about advancement of the water sector in Africa and the world as a whole. In 2014, during the prestigious International Water Association (IWA) World Water Congress in Lisbon, I was appointed to the IWA Executive Board, the highest organ of the International Water Association.

I was later appointed the Vice President of IWA in 2016. I have been the Vice President for the African Water Association for East African Region (2014 to 2019), and currently I am the President of the African Water Association (AfWA).”

As well as these impressive credentials and this long history of service to his industry, Silver has also authored several books on the subject, including Sustaining High Performing Public Enterprises: A Case of National Water and Sewerage Corporation, Uganda and Utility Benchmarking and Regulation in Developing Countries: Practical Application of Performance Monitoring and Incentives, both under IWA publishing.

Endeavour Magazine | 45

prosealcorp.com

ProSeal Corp An interview with T.J Brammer, CEO

T.J Brammer CEO

Q: For those who haven’t come across you before, could you describe ProSealCorp and ProSealECCO® for our readers?

A: We are a new start up, with a team that has decades of experience in green technology development. We are in our early transition from raw development to preparing for market ready phase.

We have patents pending and patents in process for our disruptive Nano Novel Matrix technology for Green Soil Stabilization, Toxic Leachate Containment Technologies, and Green Concrete Alternative Technologies (no Silica sand required).

Our Nano Novel Matrix technology may be placed in situ, cast, or formed and poured. It is designed site specific for site soils, allowing us to control reactions and engineer site desired results cost efficiently.

Q: We love new green initiatives! Is a green mission a central focus for ProSealCorp, then?

A: Yes, we have been in the business of green production for more than forty years. We have over 180 green products and systems that we 46 | Endeavour Magazine

have designed and developed in the commercial industrial construction industry.

Pro-SealECCO Nano Novel Matrix technology was entirely designed over many decades to be green in practice, green in process, green in material, and green in place. We have greatly reduced carbon footprint, no-volatile organic contents (VOC’s), and have a near zero hydrocarbon footprint in comparison to the current technologies and processes in place.

Q: Where does ProSealCorp currently operate and do business?

A: We have offices in Tucson and Phoenix Az, Seattle WA, Henderson NV, London UK, and Seoul Korea. We will evaluate, design, engineer, and manufacture to meet site needs, anywhere applicable on the planet.

Q: How many employees are with your company?

A: Less than 50 team members, at this time. Our team build out plan for our first plant is +3500 team members. A plant will max out its production, based

upon railway slots available in any given region, in any given country.

Q: So, what exactly does ProSealCorp offer as a company?

A: Our core business activities include mine tailings soil toxic leachate containment and semi structural soil stabilization; rapid road base & service roads stabilization and building, as well as slope and drainage stabilization; fly ash containment and stabilization; oil fracking berms, production pad and access road stabilization; waste management; stabilization of earthen mounds and dams, dust and mud control; and Type I and Type II Green Concrete alternatives. Our Nano Novel Matrix technology can help extend containment liner life expectancy as well.

Our key market sectors for these products and services include the mining industry, concrete industry, energy industry, and commercial and industrial construction.

Q: That’s a wide spread of sectors. How does your product benefit companies working in these different industries?

A: In the mining industry, mine tailings are a large environmental problem and a looming liability for the mining industry as a whole. Our Nano Novel Matrix

technology is positioned to structurally stabilize soil while containing toxic leachates in mine tailings soil.

The mining industry has been under lot of attention and pressure to find a global solution to the problem of toxic, mining tailings. Regulatory and community concern over the continued ‘business as usual’ (BAU) approach has reached a crescendo. Multiple industry players, including investors, insurance entities and government are raising concerns over the current BAU practices.

These practices have resulted in significant loss of life, complete destruction of local towns and eco habitats. Responsible mining partners, including consulting engineers, academic scientists, and major mining concerns are working together to find answers. An industry solution is in the forefront of the minds of each of these. Pro-SealECCO is the only known, viable tailings soils solution, according to Dr. Jaeheon Lee, University of Arizona, School of Mining.

As for road construction and repair, the transportation infrastructure in the USA is in severe disrepair. ProSealCorp’s, Pro-SealECCO Nano Novel Matrix technology, Rapid Road build generates road base, slope stabilization, drainage ponds, berms, drainage, swells and more using in situ soils with our additives eliminating the need for haul in of rock and Endeavour Magazine | 47

other substrate materials. The Nano Novel Matrix technology stops potholing and affords extremely rapid road repair with environmental positive impact. This is accomplished at extremely high production rates, reducing the carbon footprint and hydrocarbon output, while cutting the costs to build and to own substantially In the energy industry, fly ash containment has become a huge and expensive problem. With our disruptive technology systems, we can achieve these goals faster, for far less cost, and for far longer service life. We are told by consultants that forest fire ash in California and other areas are creating enormous environmental issues for companies due apparently to the impact of ash accelerating erosion of critical sloped lands. Nano Novel Matrix soil stabilization will play a key role in resolving these issues, as it will not only stabilize the ash and soil, but it will also resist soil erosion from wind and rain.

Q: Earlier, you mentioned that your products can offer a green concrete solution that doesn’t require Silica sand. Why is that important?

A: When it comes to the concrete industry, the world is faced with a shortage of Silica sand from which to make concrete. We have, in the patent process, formulas to create NanoCrete®, a Green concrete alternative technology, using Nano Novel Matrix technology and mine tailings soil as a component instead of Silica sand. All required testing, to date, has passed standard test criteria for type I concrete. Additional testing is in process for type II concrete.

Q: This all sounds like innovative work! Do you have much competition?

A: Everyone has competition - only a fool believes otherwise. We are the extreme disruptor in this environment, however, due to the degree of results we gain over competitors and our patents pending. We gain these extreme results due to the Nano Novel Matrix, which develops only at the nano and sub nano particle sizes. We gain in the same footprint, billions more bonding opportunities and a multiplex of bond types. These bonding formations can be structured.

Q: New ventures are never straight forward.

What challenges have you faced in getting these products off the ground?

A: Investment funds are always a challenge with a start-up. We are of course seeking interested key green investment or other investment. We project 48 | Endeavour Magazine

conservatively greater than $2.7t USD in revenues, over the life of our patents, with this disruptive technology across our markets globally. The “alternative concrete market” alone has $900b USD potential in less than 5 years.

Q: How has your reception been thus far?

A: Acceptance in the mining industry is a slow, arduous process. We are actively being designed and specified into several mine tailings projects: these projects are newer green initiatives, cake stack and both toxic leachate and low-level radiation containment mining projects. There are also some retro water column management project specifications in development. Headway is slow, however. We are being considered to retro cap some older mine closure projects and some new closures as we are essentially waterproof, leach proof, and semi structural. We will be working with some mines containing low level radiation tailings and acid rock containment.

As for construction, we get compared to traditional slaking stabilization techniques and traditional geopolymers. This is quite literally like comparing apple to oranges. Our emergence requires significant education of the project owner and contractors to understand the vast differences and the value added our Nano Novel Matrix technology brings to the table. We have a maximum half-life of 80 years, though we can value engineer shorter half-life materials.

We are making great forward strides with military projects and our technology has been accepted by the USACE. We have some project decisions pending for a significant number of lane miles of road, helipads, and other pads.

Q: What do you feel sets your company apart from its rivals?

A: We are a team of experts in our fields, driven believers, with boundless energy!

We have developed a new level of how bonds and binders are able to be designed, engineered, structured, and to be more functional. Nano Novel Matrix technology creates stronger bonds due to a multiplex of complex reactions in the same footprint.

These are happenstances are only available in the market with our patent pending technology Our technology, as we have stated, is disruptive, as it contains the EPA RCRA 8 metals at EPA or better than allowable content, is green, is site specific designed, has a long service life and may be valued engineered.

Q: You seem passionate about what you do. Where does that passion come from?

A: Containment of toxic leachates will literally change our world. We are the only known technology that binds and contains toxins into soil to include 7 of the EPA 8 metals at or below EPA allowable standards. The RCRA 8 are silver, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium), mercury, lead and selenium.

Mercury remains untested. We feel mercury will be contained, as its particle size is quite large.

Mercury contaminated soil testing will need to be conducted, of course, to prove mercury out.

Q: What is ProSealCorp’s approach towards enriching its team? How do you look after your staff?

A: Our philosophy regarding the entire workforce team is that we have no employees; we have teammates, team captains, coaches, and team management each with special skill sets focused on their specific field of team and strategic play contribution. We are heavy on the training scheme due to the nature of the work both in plant and at construction. Compensation in one of our plants will be 15% to 40% higher than other manufactures due to training and the retention curve we desire, with excellent benefits packages, insurance, educational contribution, time off, 401K, etc.

Regarding promotion, our philosophy is to promote from within, where we have the skill sets required within our teams’ personnel inventory.

However, as a start-up you need diversity and external input. We are going to be in extreme hiring mode as we build out.

Q: What do you feel is the key to effective leadership and inspiring success among employees?

A: Give them latitude, get them engaged in the decision process, get them involved in the vision, philosophy, and mission of the company. Allow them to take intrapreneurial ownership, take the reins of their respective department with the understanding there is accountability. We are all accountable to someone or some group. Communicate, communicate, communicate: own your mistakes, inform the team of your mistakes, learn the lesson, report the solution path and the resolution, then do not repeat that same mistake. Put simply; each team player decides to take ownership of the dream of the team, take action to gain traction, and believe in it, then we will achieve it.

Q: Has this company consciousness on green operations led to much CSR involvement for ProSealCorp?

A: ProSealCorp Inc. remains committed to expanding our CSR influence. Currently we are working with several groups dedicated to establishing a new set of industry standards.

These include the Tailings Centre for Excellence, headquartered at Colorado State University, and TAILENG, headquartered out of Georgia Tech.

We have also contributed to Global Industry Standards on Tailings Management in London, an independent process convened by the United Nations Environment Programme. We continue to work to develop general education for affected communities and the industry at large. We are in discussions to turn an energy producer’s ash into green construction materials for underdeveloped nations.

ProSealCorp prides itself on a completely “green” environment. We use only natural materials to generate natural reactions. Our entire end goal is a “green’ solution to environmental challenges with environment positive impact solutions. Our entire company’s green focus and social impact environmental positive approach is, in actuality, a primary CSR program in form and function.

Q: It sounds like you have an ambitious mission, but one that could create a massive impact on industry. What is your strategy and vision for achieving it?

A: Our strategy is to find those with structural soil and environmental issues, and to cost-efficiently resolve their issues with green products and/ or systems that meet their lifecycle needs with environmental positive impact.

The end goal for ProSealCorp Inc. is to create a lasting legacy of better, greener processes with which to protect our environment, our communities and all stakeholders. In working together with the academic world, and across the affected industries and the communities in which they operate, it is the goal of ProSealCorp inc. to create a more safe, sustainable environment, through environment positive impact solutions, in critical operation with a positive green impact to the world-wide economy.

Endeavour Magazine | 49

Amazing World

Written by Alice Instone-Brewer

MARI LWYD

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ast month, we explored some of the monstrous creatures that stalk the Christmas season, according to various cultures around the world. This month, to see in the New Year, it’s time to come eye-to-eye socket with the Mari Lwyd.

The Mari Lwyd, or as the Welsh call it (and as this is a Welsh tradition, they should know best), Y Fari Lwyd, has a haunting visage, traditionally made from a horse skull mountain on a pole and carried by someone hidden under white sackcloth. Its countenance is arguably brightened up a little with multi-coloured ribbons and large, fake button-eyes inserted into the eye sockets, though that latter detail is arguably the most disturbing part of all! For all that Y Fari Lwyd would be a concerning figure to see appear at your door, however, its visit is actually a thing of cheer – though the details have changed back and forth over the years.

And visit it does. The Mari Lwyd tradition has its roots in the folk custom of the wassail: 50 | Endeavour Magazine

now sometimes used as a term to mean caroling door to door, a wassail was originally a custom that involved visiting homes and orchards at harvesttime, spreading cheer and the bounties of the harvest.

In part, the custom was intended to scare away evil spirits from the orchards in order to ensure a successful harvest; to achieve this, the participants dressed up in masks and costumes aimed at impersonating spirits themselves. As for traveling door-to-door, this part of the celebration was once a tradition of reciprocation between peasants and feudal lords, allowing the peasants to request or demand gifts to ‘even the scales’ a little. Mostly peaceful, this could sometimes get rowdy, much like trick-or-treating, and eventually stopped being targeted only at lords and became something that happened between the people. The tradition is thought to be the root for both the Mari Lwyd custom and Christmas Caroling – especially

© R. fiend, Wikimedia bit.ly/3rXUORR

the song ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’ and its demand for figgy pudding before the carolers move on.

Whilst the wassail happens at harvest, the Mari Lwyd itself travels at the New Year, in a similar procession and with similar traditions. The first recorded incident of the custom was in 1800, but it is thought to go far further back. When the crowd, its mounted horse skull in hand, arrives at your door, the expectation was that the crowd would sing a song demanding entry, and those inside would sing a song denying entry in return.

This continued back and forth, and if the houseowner eventually allowed entry, the crowd could come inside and help themselves to food and drink. Presumably, doing so was thought to bring good fortune to the generous household for the coming year.

The name ‘Mari Lwyd’ may be a misrepresentation of the original name, when this pagan tradition came into contact with Christian beliefs. It was held by scholars such as folklorist Iorwerth C. Peate that the term meant ‘Holy Mary’, linking the practice with practices that could be seen as Catholic. However, other writers asserted that Y Fari Lwyd was more likely to mean ‘Grey Mare’, which is a fitting name for the ghostlike horse skull creature.

The prevalence of Mari Lywd died out dramatically in the early to mid-twentieth century, in part due to church influence, and in part due to a lessening interest in folk traditions across a modernising Wales. However, more recently, the Welsh have been rediscovering their love for this colourful and striking part of their history: when a country has a dragon for a flag and woad on its ancestors, why wouldn’t it usher in the New Year with horse skull looming at your door?

Endeavour Magazine | 51

Written by Alice Instone-Brewer

POWERING KENYA Lake Turkana chevron-square-right ltwp.co.ke phone-square +254 20 221 3493

Lake Turkana

The Lake Turkana Wind Power project was an innovative undertaking by the Kenyan government – the single largest investment in the country’s history. As the long proposed project is finally ready to go into commission, we took a look to see how this sustainable project plans to positively impact he country and its people.

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ocated in the Loiyangalani District, Marsabit County, the Lake Turkana Wind Power project currently stands at 365 wind turbines (one for every day of the year). Each of these 365 turbines has a capacity of 850kW – that’s over 300,000 kW in total. This power is then stored at a high voltage substation that, in turn, delivers the power to the Kenyan National Grid. In total, the farm currently provides around 17% of the country’s capacity – that’s a sizable portion to have provided from such a clean and sustainable source, and shows the impact for good that this one project is able to have on a country’s power. As well as being sustainable, the farm’s supply of power is reliable, and comes through at a low cost, which passes its advantages on to the country at large. Directly, it is sold to the Kenyan Power & Lighting Company Ltd at a fixed price, but these savings are able to be passed onwards to the company’s clients, aka the Kenyan people.

The impressive project is the single largest investment in Kenyan history. This vast undertaking covers 40,000 acres, out of which less than 87.5 are used for the company’s facilities. The rest, of course, is used for the ranging farm. This land is also kept open to the public, which allows the acres to still be used by the local nomadic population – an essential consideration for any project cover large areas of land in Kenya. The nomadic peoples in the area are able to use the project’s land to settle on, graze their livestock and access water. Because of this, only the station’s facilities themselves are fenced off, but the rest of the land is open and free to access.

The land itself, a 12 hour drive from Nairobi, ranges from the foot slopes of Mt Kulal to the south-eastern end of Lake Turkana. It was an area selected for its strong yet predictable wind streams between the lake and the desert; as the temperature between these two locations is in stark contrast, this produces the strong wind that the project seeks to harness.

A huge investment by the Kenyan government, the Lake Turkana Wind Power project was still not a government initiative alone: the farm was co-developed by KP&P Africa B.V and Aldwych International, who first partnered up on the project in 2006 following lengthy discussions the previous

54 | Endeavour Magazine

Lake Turkana

year. It has also received additional investment and support from the Investment Fund for Developing Countries, Vestas Eastern Africa Limited, Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation Ltd, KLP Norfund Investments AS and Sandpiper. In 2017, the last of the turbines were finally in place, and in 2018, the farm went into operation, after 13 years of planning.

As well as being a boon to the country because of its sustainable, reliable and affordable energy, the Lake Turkana Wind Power project has also set out as it means to continue by making sure that the community benefits directly from its existence. Beyond letting the locals use its land, it has also created initiatives such as the Winds of Change Foundation (WoC), which the project funds in order for it to help improve livelihoods in the area. It is expected that, over the twenty year projected life of the project, WoC will contribute around €10 million to the area.

Some of the Winds of Change Foundation’s areas of focus include enhancing employability through work with education, enhancing health services

56 | Endeavour Magazine

and health education, and improving access to water. For example, since 2015, WoC has built various school facilities, including a laboratory at Nyiro Girls Secondary School and Korole Boys Secondary School, two classrooms at the new Loiyangalani Youth Polytechnic, an extension to the facilities of Sarima Primary School, and a dormitory at Nyiro Boys Secondary School, It have also installed a solar system at Mt. Kulal Girls Secondary School, provided desks, books and pens to 25 primary schools in Laisamis Constituency; and arranged educational school trips to the wind farm and other parts of Kenya.

As for its contributions to health facilities, WoC saw the problems present in the area around the wind farms. As a broad area with a scattered population and limited resources, access to reliable healthcare was poor. WoC has physically improved the situation with the construction of new healthcare facilities, as well as reaching out to charities and organisations who can get involved. It has also helped to fix up hospitals and dispensaries with game-changing resources such as solar panels, vaccine freezers and essential furniture include toilets and beds.

Powering Kenya

Finally, due to its location near to desert land, the area around the Lake Turkana Wind Power project has an issue with access to water. Prompted by this, WoC has put water points in Arge, Laga el Fereji, Gatab, Ntil, Lonjorin, Larachi, Sarima, Illaut and Olturot, someone of which have helped bring water to settlements of thousands. The company has also built water troughs to help provide water for essential livestock that form a backbone of many Kenyan’s lives, and innovatively, in Sarima Village it has also installed a solar powered reverse osmosis system, which allows the people of the village to access clean drinking water for the first time.

partners; Vestas, Siemens, SECO and Civicon to become trusted partners in development with the local community around the wind farm and the larger Laisamis constituency.”

All of these projects are focusing in the Laisamis constituency in Marsabit County. These are all exciting projects, but just as exciting is the Lake Turkana Wind Power project itself; a long time in the making, now that this vast farm is up and running, it is bound to make a real difference to Kenya, both in the short term, and also hopefully in the long-term of the country’s approach to its power needs.

As the Foundation says itself; “WoC works in partnership with the county government, local leaders, NGO’s, CBO’s and government departments in implementing negotiated activities to ensure optimal stakeholder engagement, participation and ownership.

WoC aims to catalyse positive sustainable development to enhance livelihoods in the areas surrounding the wind farm. It is anticipated that the planned social investment activities will enable LTWP and its project

Endeavour Magazine | 57

Written by Alice Instone-Brewer

CREATING CHANGE Plipdeco chevron-square-right www.plipdeco.com phone-square +1 (868) 636-2201

Plipdeco

The Point Lisas Industrial Estate lies at the heart of Trinidad and Tobago’s petrochemical sector – a sector which is, in turn, at the heart of the islands’ economy. The estate is a worldclass facility, covering 862.613 hectares and representing an investment of over US $2 billion. The ones responsible for maintaining it? PLIPDECO – the Point Lisas Industrial Port Development Corporation.

But the real story isn’t in this management, but in how the development first came to be.

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ike every industrial cog in Trinidad and Tobago, PLIPDECO plays a crucial role on the islands, overseeing both the islands’ second port – the Port of Point Lisas - and the management of the industrial estate connected to it. The Port of Point Lisas is one of two major ports in Trinidad and Tobago and consists of six general cargo and container berths. The facility handles a variety of cargo, including containerised, breakbulk, lumber, paper, consumables, dry bulk and steel. In total, the estate is home to over 100 companies; whilst the petrochemical sector has a dominant present, there are many other many multi-national production plants also operating there.

As the company says of its mission; ““Our mission is to develop, market and operate port, logistics and industrial estate infrastructure for optimal economic growth, alongside our vision of becoming a global leader in port and estate management by consistently providing superior, innovative service. We will act with honesty, without compromising the truth and be personally accountable for the highest standards of behaviour and we will convert knowledge and ideas to new approaches that will revolutionise the way we work.” Largely, its work these days centres around the preservation of the site’s essential infrastructure, but it was the construction of this infrastructure, and the long and arduous path that led to this construction, that tells PLIPDECO’s real story.

The history of the Point Lisas Industrial Port Development Corporation Limited is a long and involved one, filled with foresight and determination on the part of Trinidad and Tobago’s South Chambre – the body that would one day form the PLIPDECO board. Until the late 1930s, cargo vessels headed for Trinidad would anchor offshore and the cargo would be split into lighter loads to be taken to the Port of Spain or San Fernando. This allowed San Fernando, Trinidad’s second city, to benefit from the same level of business as the Port of Spain.

However, in 1937, the Port of Spain was dredged and converted into a deep-water operation, which left San Fernando out to dry. This led to years of campaigning from the businessowners of San Fernando for the islands of Trinidad and Tobago to build a new industrial port that could draw back this business – campaigning that continued until 1966,

60 | Endeavour Magazine

Plipdeco

when the project was finally approved and greenlit. From here, PLIPDECO was born.

In order to reach this point, many studies were carried out to prove the need for a deep-water port, and these studies would not have persisted if the business owners pushing for them had given up or fallen quiet. As it was, after many years, it was at long last acknowledged by the islands’ government that not only was a commercial port development the way forward, but that an insightful and trustworthy team was needed to oversee and manage it. This job was entrusted to the members of the South Chamber who had lobbied long and hard for the development, allowing them to bring their shrewd business sense to the project.

When the company came into being on September 16th 1966, there wasn’t a port to develop, let alone an industrial estate to manage. In this lay one of the challenges: the land upon which it made sense for the port and surrounding estate to be built was, at the time, well-established sugar land.

Whilst the land was marginal, it still bore sugarcane – a main staple of Trinidad and Tobago’s economy at the time. These days, petrochemical and other heavy-industry undertakings are definitive for the

62 | Endeavour Magazine

islands, but this would never have become the case if the battle for this port had fallen to this traditional reliance on the sugar trade. It was a gamble, but one that was taken. As the company describes:

“Sugar, the commodity of the old economy, gave way to the high technology of the new: cane to wire rods. Point Lisas was Trinidad and Tobago’s way of making a break with the past and turning its natural resources into steady revenue.”

After a journey that had taken over thirty years, this ambitious project was realised, and once complete, the project and the Chambre that had championed it finally got their recognition: in 1967, soon after the construction was complete, then-Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams declared the South Chambre a “vigorous body dedicated to the economic development not only of the south but of the entire country.”

Continuing to innovate even after construction had been achieved, PLIPDECO led the way again by being one of the first companies in Trinidad and Tobago to offer shares. Today, the government

Creating change

maintains 51% of these shares, whilst the other 49% are held by private companies. This leading cut of the shares for the government was awarded in recognition of the funding that had made construction possible: however, once again proving their shrewd business sense, the members of the South Chamber created a way to make sure that they maintained control of the project itself: to do this, they created ‘Subscriber’ shares – nine in total – which were only valued at TT$1, but which gave the owner the right to appoint 12 of the 15 board members. The Chamber held these nine shares, and thus, it did not lose control of its brain-child.

With these developments now built and longestablished, what does their maintenance require of PLIPDECO? As well as managing the operations of the port itself, it answers to the needs of the Estate’s tenants – the 100+ companies that include a mix of world-class methanol, ammonia and urea plants, three steel plants, a power plant and smaller light manufacturing and service companies. Clearly, it does so well: the Port is the proud winner of the Caribbean Shipping Association’s Port of The Year Award from 2000 to 2002 and 2018. In 2016 and 2017 the Port was also the recipient of the Caribbean

Shipping Association’s Award in recognition of Excellence in Port Dependability and Flexibility. This is no surprise: with a heritage and origin routed in innovative business-sense, it is heartening to see this continue in modern-day PLIPDECO’s operations.

Whilst port and industrial zone maintenance may not sound exciting, this group helped to change the face of these twin islands, and Port Point Lisas and its thriving industrial estate stand as ongoing reminders of that.

Central Equipment Rentals Limited

Bespoke service and solutions provided to various industries which encompass the energy, manufacturing, hospitality, commercial and retail in both public and private sectors in Trinidad and Tobago.

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Garbage/waste handling solutions Automotive leasing Water transportation Document shredding services Street cleaning services Vegetation control Equipment rental

www.centralequipmentrentals.com Endeavour Magazine | 63

REDEFINING PACKAGING FOR A CHANGING WORLD DS Smith is a global leading packaging company of customer-specific packaging with emphasis on state-of-the art packaging design and local close to customer facilities. With a product portfolio that includes transit packaging, consumer packaging, displays and promotional packaging, customised protective packaging and industrial packaging, DS Smith answers to each market requirement.

Every 7th packaging on the store shelf has been produced by DS Smith. The company employs 29 thousands people across the globe and selling its products across more than 100 countries. In Macedonia DS Smith has the plant in Skopje and employs around 125 people. Our company locally existing more than 72 years in the same industry as a market leader with the market share over 55%. In our portfolio of 250 customers are the biggest companies from FMCG and automotive industry. We have successful cooperation with Tikves winery more than 30 years delivering solutions and innovations as a support in their growth. On top of the local market DS Smith Macedonia serves successfully also customers in Kosovo and Albania” Our customers want broader reaching solutions to their packaging needs; innovation and processes that will help them reduce waste, cost and complexity from their supply chains. By using our expertise from design to production and supply to recycling, we can offer high quality, environmentally friendly, innovative solutions and great service that looks at the whole of our customers’ packaging needs, not just one part. We call this ‘Supply Cycle Thinking’. It is a unified approach to remove complexity from, and simplify, our customers’ supply chains.

DS Smith’s Packaging Strategists work in partnership with customers to deliver value through exceptional packaging performance at every stage of the supply cycle. Whatever your packaging needs, we will help you increase sales, lower costs and manage risks.

The company purpose stands for “Redefining packaging for a Changing World” supported by the following strategies: Being different as we see the opportunity for packaging to play a powerful role in a changing world. We help our customers respond to changing shopping habits with the sustainable packaging solutions that our society needs.

Putting sustainability at the heart. We can make, use, collect and recycle cardboard packaging within 14 days. We are ambitious in using innovation to tackle some of the world’s most complex sustainability challenges.

Thinking differently - we take a flexible approach to the solutions we create and operate where our customers need us. Our people thrive on finding innovative ways to help customers achieve more for less – sell more, reduce costs, manage risk and complexity in their supply chain.

Developing the right strategies. Our experts work closely with customers to understand their needs. Together we find ways to help take advantage of today’s opportunities to powerfully deliver products.

Innovating together - we tackle big challenges in the whole and not just one part to find answers that would otherwise be out of reach. From design to production and supply to recycling we offer our customers a joined-up solution that is sustainable for all.

1632 st, 1, 1040 Skopje, Macedonia, +389 2 2551 085 www.dssmith.com/mk