The Journey Begins

Greetings to All of Our Friends!

Many have requested that we provide a forum to post news about our rapidly evolving venture.  We welcome you to our blog, where you may follow our developments, post your comments and suggestions, and/or contribute to our endeavor with a donation, http://bit.ly/1nrES0M.

Since the introduction of our incubator last January, we have been recognized by several prestigious international agencies that are helping us to get our innovation to the families who need it.  We have been endorsed by the Under-Secretary-General of Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordination of the United Nations and by the Administrator of the Bureau for Global Health of the U.S. Agency for International Development.  The incubator is currently being evaluated by UNICEF and by the World Health Organization.

We have tendered our candidacy for a grant from the the consortium funding the Saving Lives at Birth challenge, http://bit.ly/1kPtLvQ.  We are amongst 500 applicants for endowments.  It is excellent to learn that so many are striving to help improve the lives of mothers and families.

When we are able to properly assess requisite annual production from commitments for procurement from humanitarian projects, we are ready to commence manufacturing at an initial level of 2,500 or 10,000 incubators per year.  Over 80% of our vendors and subcontractors are located within a 75 mile radius of Tampa Bay, so our enterprise will create jobs and revenue for Florida.  Furthermore, 98% of all components of the incubator are “Made in the U.S.A.”, so we are helping our fellow Americans.

The mission and progress of Designs for the World has been presented to civic and entrepreneurial groups.  We were well-received at a 1 Million Cups event of the Kaufman Foundation, http://bit.ly/1kPuxcf, in Saint Petersburg.  Following the presentation, we had a lively question-and-answer session, wherein many from diverse backgrounds voiced enthusiastic support. Notably, I spoke with a missionary, who had just returned from a tertiary hospital in Kenya.  She expressed that the Tikü would be perfect for this new facility, since it was so simple-to-use and well-suited to the conditions that she had encountered.

We have begun to reach out to local churches for their support. We have approached pastors of congregations from a range of denominations, including Catholic, Lutheran, Mennonite, Mormon, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Epispicolian, and Evangelical Christan.  Many faiths have missions overseas that could be directly helped by our incubator.  Others are involved in support of victims of disasters, like those caught in the aftermath of Supertyphoon Haiyan in the Philippines.  We feel that these good people will be moved by the teaching in Mark 10:14.

To connect with those who are dealing with infant mortality daily, we have begun contacting the Ministers of Health of developing nations, who are confronting the crisis with the help of the World Bank.  Our incubators are currently being considered for procurement by projects in Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Mozambique, Peru, Togo, and Uganda.  We have many others to approach, primarily in South Asia and in Africa.

We have now brought you up-to-date on our progress.  There are many causes to which to contribute but we feel that helping babies to have a chance at life is particularly compelling.  We believe that Designs for the World has a great deal to give to humanity.  We welcome your help.  Remember, "It takes a village to raise a child".