Our community engagements

Our purpose "Health in progress" reflects our ambition to make a difference in society and work for better care and health for everyone. In addition to the positive impact that we create through our regular activities, we also support well-selected organisations through various community engagements.

Our community engagements always have a connection to some part of the value chain for medical supplies, devices and equipment – from production to the products being used in healthcare. This is in line with our sustainability strategy, "A bigger care", which means that we want to contribute to positive change even outside of what we can influence directly in our daily operations. Our current group-wide commitments and donations to important causes that have been carried out in recent years are described below. In addition to this, our subsidiaries engage in local collaborations of their own choosing.

Collaborations and partnerships

Basic HealthCare Services 

Basic HealthCare Services operates in southern Rajasthan, India, where a large part of the population live in rural areas with limited access to quality healthcare, which is reflected in generally poor health and high mortality rates. Many are migrant workers, some in the production of medical supplies, devices and equipment. The not-for-profit organisation reaches these communities through a network of health centres and by strengthening the local healthcare system. Asker has chosen to support the organisation because they promote good health and improve patient outcomes. In addition, they operate in a region where we have third-party manufacturing.

Progess in 2024: 

• The quality of maternity care and health of newborn babies improved through BHS training of 25 doctors and nurses and 250 further employees at six healthcare centres.
• In four out of six healthcare centres, the staff feel confident in being able to perform life-saving tasks on new-born babies (compared with one out of the six before the training).
• The handling of complications during childbirth improved considerably at one of the healthcare centres, which led to a 50 per cent increase in the number of childbirths at the centre.
• BHS also trained leaders of 78 local committees in how to demand better care for their 78,000 community members.

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Sungai Watch

Sungai Watch works to protect and restore rivers in Indonesia and stop plastic waste from flowing into the ocean.The organisation uses trash barriers that collect plastic waste, which is then sorted and reused. The healthcare sector has an extensive need for single-use products and plastics, a large part of which is produced in Asia and in regions where problems with waste management are extensive. That is why Asker has chosen to support Sungai Watch.

Progess in 2024: 

In 2024, Sungai Watch installed 60 new trash barriers and collected 1,000 tonnes of non-organic waste.

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Donations

The earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria

In February 2023, we donated 380 pallets, equivalent to about 16 trucks, of medical supplies to support the earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria. This was made possible through our collaboration with The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB).

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The war in Ukraine

Several companies in the group donate recurrently medical supplies, devices and equipment to support emergency care in Ukraine and neighbouring countries.

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Read more about our ESG work