How did Normeca start and what was your first project?
Normeca AS was established in 1983 as an importer of medical equipment to Norway. For many years Normeca had around 97% of the market in Norway for anaesthesia machines, ventilators etc. Already back in 1983-84 Normeca started a co-operation with the Norwegian Army on the development of a field anaesthesia machine. Normeca started to export this machine in 1992-93. Meanwhile, during our work in the export market many people were asking why no one was selling the Norwegian Mobile Hospital and Disaster Unit developed by the Norwegian Army on behalf of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign affairs in 1983-84. This mobile hospital had been donated to many countries after natural disasters and humanitarian crisis during the last decade. So we started to market it and the first complete mobile hospital was delivered to UAE Army for use in Albania and Kosovo in 1999.
You have been involved in some of the worst humanitarian disasters over the last decade. Which ones particularly stay in your mind?
It was the tsunami where we built the Forensic Medicine Centre in Phuket and continued to manage it for 13 months. We started with more than 4.000 bodies in more than 100 freezer containers. There were less than 500 left when we closed after 13 months.
The hospital we built in Southern Sudan will also always be in our memory, but for totally different reasons. In Kapoeta we worked together with so many local people, came so close to many of them and we could see every week, more or less, how the local community was growing mostly because of the hospital. All of us in Normeca feel very sad today because the hospital has been closed.
Which international organisations do you work with? Do you find that being Norwegian gives you an advantage?
We have been working with and on behalf of many different organisations, including MSF, Japanese Red Crescent, Japanese Platform, Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Norway, Ministry of Foreign Trade in Cuba, UAE Army and many more. In many places Norway is well known for its humanitarian aid work and we have benefitted from this.
No project seems too small - from individual tents to entire field hospitals?
We are working with all kind of projects - from small cheap clinics based in tents to complete semi permanent hospitals with up to 2–300 beds, covering accommodation for hundreds of people, including management and total turnkey delivery to areas without any infrastructure at all. We are well known around the world for being able to do things within time limits nobody else can do and in areas where the majority of people are saying it is impossible to operate.
Your website also mentions whole refugee camps?
Yes. We also have the capacity to set up and manage refugee camps for many, many people, within a very short timeframe.
What is your latest project?
We delivered 4 mobile hospitals over the last 8 months.
And your plans for the future?
To be better and stronger in the work we are doing already.
For more information see www.normeca.no.