Grand Rapids Press covers a story of Haitian pharmaceutical business owner Ralph Edmond

The Grand Rapids Press published this article today, highlighting one of our key entrepreneurs in Haiti, Ralph Edmond, and his connection with a Hope College professor through Partners Worldwide. Ralph is preparing to return to full pharmaceutical production -- and put his 82 employees back to work -- through the support of our strong global network of Christian businesspeople. Thanks for your shared efforts to get stories like this to the public! (To learn more about Ralph's background as a Haitian entrepreneur, check out the original story following my recent visit to his business in Port-au-Prince.)


Partners Worldwide, Hope College help pharmaceutical manufacturer in Haiti get back to business
By Myron Kukla | The Grand Rapids Press
April 07, 2010, 7:09AM

HOLLAND -- The Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti put Port-au-Prince pharmaceutical manufacturer Ralph Edmond out of business.

Among the equipment lost was a high-performance liquid chromatography machine, valued at up to $40,000, used to analyze active ingredients in the nutrition, vitamin and hygiene products that his Laboratoires Farmatrix produced for sale in Haiti. The loss led the company to lay off most of its 82 employees.

But Edmond's company is on its way to being back in business because of the Grand Rapids nonprofit group Partners Worldwide and Hope College in Holland.

And it happened because Dave Genzink, Partners Worldwide's operations director, and Hope chemistry professor Mike Pikaart attend the same Holland church and had coffee together after a Sunday service.

"Dave was telling me about the equipment Farmatrix needed and when he got to the HPLC, I knew we had one we weren't using," said Pikaart, who checked out the chromatography machine at the college and found it in working order.

The HPLC -- which came to the college in a donation of equipment from pharmaceutical manufacturer Pfizer Inc. -- arrived in Haiti last week and is being readied for production by Farmatrix.

A company employee is coming to Hope College on April 12 to learn how to operate the machine by working with an identical one in the chemistry department, Pikaart said.

Edmond, in a statement, said the unit will help get his company get back to providing medications to clinics and hospitals that need supplies and will get local pharmacies back in business.

"If you want to help Haitians, the most important thing you can do is ask a Haitian what they need," he said.

Partners Worldwide matches entrepreneurs in developing countries with business resources in the United States. After the earthquake, the group established a "Haiti Business Recovery Initiative" to help firms there get back to operating.

"We are finding and providing whatever equipment we can for businesses in Haiti, from generators and pumps to specialty machinery like that needed by Farmatrix," Genzink said.

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YOU CAN HELP
Meeting Haiti's needs

To make cash or machinery donations to help companies in Haiti, or other nations, contact: Dave Genzink, operations director of Partners Worldwide, at 616-818-4900 or daveg@partnersworldwide.org