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ColaLife on BBC (UK) National Radio (27/12/08)

29 December 2008 By 2 Comments

On Saturday, 27/12/08 the BBC ran a 10 minute feature on ColaLife updating the initial interview back in June on the BBC Radio 4 programme, iPM. It includes bits from the original interview in June 2008, an update on progress and the vision from me and a clever audio cut from the frontline video filmed in Tanzania.

The item is no longer available on the BBC iPlayer but, thanks to the iPM Team, you can listen by clicking on the play button below:

iPM ColaLife Feature broadcast on 27 12 2008 by colalife

Eddie Mair finishes the feature saying “Simon Berry with his aidpod“. This is interesting because at the recent face-to-face meeting of ColaLife supporters there was lots a discussion about what the ‘ColaLife Pod’ should be called as the pod idea has applications beyond Coca-Cola, or Pepsi Cola for that matter. Terms like ‘healthpod’ and ‘lifepod’ are already in use for other things but ‘aidpod’ isn’t. So . . . . I’ve registered aidpod.org, aidpod.org.uk and aidpod.co.uk just in case we need them moving forward. For the moment I have re-directed these domain names to the ColaLife Blog.

If we adopted the term ‘aidpod’ then we would need to start talking in terms of ‘The ColaLife AidPod‘ which would leave space for the ‘Pepsi AidPod’ and the ‘Heineken AidPod’ etc etc

Any thoghts on the ‘aidpod’ name? What would it go down like on the frontline I wonder?

Filed Under: Audio, Coca-Cola Campaign, Interview Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

A holiday gift for all ColaLife supporters

24 December 2008 By 1 Comment

Happy holidays everyone!

ColaLife is likely to be featured as ‘a highlight of the year’ in BBC Radio 4′s iPM programme (scroll down to ‘Greatest Hits’) on 27/12/08. If you are near a radio in the UK at 17:30 GMT on that day please tune in. Alternatively you can listen via the internet on the Radio 4 page.

Image credit: Cola-Cola gets everywhere, Les Menuires, Dec 2008. Simon Berry.
Filed Under: Coca-Cola Campaign, Interview Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Summing up. ColaLife face-to-face gathering 16/12/08

18 December 2008 By 7 Comments

Rather than write a long report we thought we’d sum the evening up there and then. We are, left to right, Simon Berry, William Hoyle (CTT) and Simon Cohen (Global Tolerance). David Wilcox (socialreporter.com) is on the camera and Ian Crawford is asking the questions.

It you’ve got 40 minutes to spare(!) you might want to watch this very informal delivery of the ColaLife story so far. Make yourself a cup of tea or grab a beer before pressing the play button. Thanks again to David Wilcox (socialreporter.com) for the camera work and editing.

If you’d like a copy of the Powerpoint presentation please leave a comment.

Filed Under: Coca-Cola Campaign, Meetings, Presentations, Videos Tagged With: , , ,

Why are you here? ColaLife face-to-face 16/12/08

16 December 2008 By 2 Comments
Steve Bridger Megan Riera Troy Kennedy
. . .
Richard Cooper
& William Hoyle		 Jess Ponsford Emma Berry
Luke Berry Simon Cohen Lance McPherson

Here’s a selection of the lovely people who gathered at the Global Tolerance HQ in London tonight to talk about ColaLife. Thanks to everyone who came and to Simon Cohen and the team at Global Tolerance for hosting the gathering.

There were loads of great ideas for the next steps which we will report on over the next couple of days.

Filed Under: Coca-Cola Campaign, Meetings, Videos Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

ColaLife Aims and Objectives reviewed

13 December 2008 By 1 Comment

ColaLife pods in place IMG_2012 IMG_2019 Jess' designs

Based on recent learning the aims and objectives of the ColaLife have been revised and published here.

The changes made stem mainly from one thing; what is carried in the crates should be locally determined by health professionals and institutions – those with the long term responsibility for health services. This means that we move away from the narrow focus on ORS and educational materials on health and hygiene to ’social products’ of any sort.

We move towards the idea of incorporating a ‘ColaLife Pod‘ in Coca-Cola crates that can contain anything (within reason). The pods would contain the things that are required in any particular region and may vary with the season of the year or in response to local events.

We believe that as well as being sound from a development perspective, the local determination of what is distributed and the focus on the ‘ColaLife Pod‘ rather than any particular product, will make it acceptable for a wider range of social products to be distributed in Coca-Cola crates.

Onwards and upwards.

Filed Under: Coca-Cola Campaign Tagged With: , ,

An amazing day in the life of ColaLife

12 December 2008 By Leave a Comment

Colalife at RRAC - clop

PART 1

I was roped into attending a workshop this afternoon representing Defra but what an amazing experience it was. It was entitled ‘Building resilient communities: from idea to sustainable action‘ and it was run by the Risk and Regulation Advisory Council. The subject was very familiar territory for me but the way it was done (by Innovationarts) was brilliant and there were some very influential people there (including Dame Julia Cleverdon). During the plenaries the discussion was captured by a cartoonist and as you can see above, ColaLife made it into the final plenary discussion.

I am always very careful not to mix ColaLife into my working day but it was dragged out of me! I was in a break-out group with a friend and ColaLife fan, Lola Barrett of Grenfell Housing Association. We were talking about the future and the role on technology and she said, “Go on Simon tell them. Tell them about ColaLife.” I refused but the protest was overwhelming(!) and it was a relevant example of the role of new technology. So I explained. Another member of our group then brought it into the plenary and it was captured by the cartoonist. And it got an applause!

PART 2

I spent Wednesday night writing up revised objectives for ColaLife based on the experience of the trip to Tanzania and I posted these to the ColaLife Google Group for comments. The modifications I suggested came mainly from one thing and that is that what is carried in the crates should be locally determined by health professionals. This means that we move away from ORS and educational materials on health and hygiene to ‘social products’ (a term used during the Tanzania meeting) of any sort. So we move towards the idea of a ‘colalife pod’ that can contain anything (within reason).

Anyway, this set ColaLife supporter Magedlena Serpa off on a mission as it made the proposition of interest to the organisation she works for. This resulted in an interrupted conference call to Washington on the 18:57 from Euston to Rugby! This was not entirely successful (the mobile signal was not good) but established contact with Peter Johnson of AED, a nonprofit organisation working globally to improve education, health, civil society and economic development – “the foundation of thriving societies”. AED have a turnover of more than $400 million and employ some 2,000 staff in more than 150 countries. Peter handles corporate relations for AED who have an existing relationship with Coca-Cola . . . are AED the multi-national NGO we are looking for? Well they may be. Watch this space.

All in all, a very exciting day! Have we reached a tipping point?

Filed Under: Coca-Cola Campaign, NGOs Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Progress Report – 6/12/08

6 December 2008 By Leave a Comment

Children at Rene MDC, Dar Es Salaam >>more photos

Here is an update on the progress of the Coca Cola campaign. The headline is:
ColaLife in Dar Es Sallaam. Read the diary.

May 1988 – May 2008 – the first 7,305 days – no progress!

  • May 1988 Had the idea while working on the British Aid Programme in NE Zambia that Coca-Cola’s distribution muscle could be used to distribute oral rehydration salts in developing countries
  • I tried to promote the idea but made no progress at all!

May 2008 onwards- the last 180 days – real progress!

Next moves

  • Face to face gathering to take place at Global Tolerance on 16/12/08 >>more
  • Develop the relationship with PSI in Tanzania
  • Continue to push for field trials in the New Year.
  • Seeking engagement from a multi-national NGO (if PSI do not want to engage).
  • Encouraging ideas and contributions from members of the various ColaLife groups (eg design of inserts for crates; educational and awareness raising materials; local logistics; grass-roots engagement etc etc).
  • On-going PR campaign to ensure support groups continue to grow.

5,500 children die every day in Africa before the age of 5. This initiative could save thousands and thousands of children’s lives through positive engagement between the private and NGO sector.

Filed Under: Coca-Cola Campaign, Newsletters, Progress Reports Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Many thanks to newstalk

5 December 2008 By 1 Comment

The ColaLife Facebook Group has received a boost today thanks to Sean Moncrieff and all the lovely people at newstalk radio, Ireland. Thanks particularly to newstalk listeners Stephen Byrne and Neil Curran who actually posted positive messages on the wall of the Facebook Group.

I was interviewed over the phone this afternoon by Sean . . . . although Caroline and Naomi at newstalk had set me up for a pre-recorded session, I found myself talking to Sean live!

Thanks for your support.

Filed Under: Coca-Cola Campaign, Interview Tagged With: , ,

Tanzania trip – summary of progress

2 December 2008 By Leave a Comment

For those of you without the time to plough through all the material generated during the Tanzania trip, here’s a summary with some quick links:

ColaLife Pods – what the frontline thinks
A discussion about the ColaLife pods outside a Manual Cistribution Centre (MDC) in Dar Es Salaam. This includes a ‘must see’ video!
.
Discussions with an international NGO with a long-term and significant presence in Tanzania
Before we can move to piloting the ColaLife idea we need to identify a local NGO who can lead on the initiative. I met with PSI, Tanzania on my last day and they may consider taking up the idea although there is no formal agreement in place yet.
Summary of information gained by talking with people who run MDCs
There was a consensus on the logistics of including ‘social products’ within Coca-Cola crates.

.
Filed Under: Coca-Cola Campaign, Meetings, Tanzania, Tanzania Trip Nov 08 Tagged With: , , , , ,

Summary of information gained from visits to MDCs on 27/11/08 and 28/11/08

30 November 2008 By Leave a Comment

On 27/11/08 I was lucky enough to be able to accompany Benito Xaverly, one of Coca-Cola Kwanza’s Area Sales Managers as he visited 7 of the 17 MDCs he looks after. The main purpose of the visits was to agree the month’s sales targets and discuss any issues the MDCs may have.

However, I took along the ‘ColaLife Pods’, the tube and the wedge, to test reactions to the overall concept of putting ‘social products’ into Coca-Cola crates and get opinions on the different ways of doing it.

Here’s a summary of what we found. There is an insightful video of the conversation at Freeman MDC here. Click on the images to see them in more detail on Flickr.

Mwenge South MDC Freeman MDC Unloading at Kisima MDC

1 Mwenge South

2 Freeman

3 Kisimi*
On the tube
“Ah, no.”
“But what happens to the [spare] bottle?”		 On the tube
“People would think we are reducing their profit margin”
.		 No discussion (lorry waiting to be unloaded)
.
.
On the wedge
“That is beautiful . . . colalife.”
“We would find space” [to store the wedges for insertion at the MDC]		 On the wedge
“We would find space” [to store the wedges for insertion at the MDC]
.
Other
Please see the video of the conversation here.
“It would need to be waterproof”
“It’s a good idea”
“Coca-Cola is distributed aggressively and gets everywhere but medicines don’t”
“It’s social responsibility”
“It would be good we would be doing something to help with people’s health”
– – –
DD Shop MDC Agreeing targets at Asma MDC IMG_2015

4 DD Shop

5 Asma*

6 Grace*
On the tube
“But now there are only 23″ [bottles - disapproval]
.
.
.
.
.		 Discussion in 100% Swahili and a truck was being unloaded while we were there.
Again the wedge was the preferred option with insertion of the wedge at the MDC the suggestion.
I have a poor quality video of the conversation.
.
.		 On the tube
“Ah, no!”
.
.
.
.
.
On the wedge
“I have the space [to store the wedges] just give me the instructions”		 On the wedge
“It’s a good idea”
.
.
Other
“Is it free?”
.
.
Other
Insertion of the wedges at the MDC was thought to be best.
See text below also.

* owned by women

Everyone at the MDCs thought that the wedges were the best solution and everyone thought they should be put in at the MDC (not at the bottling plant). Although space at all of the MDCs seemed to be at a premium, everyone said that they would find space to store the wedges.

Payment for insertion of the wedges was not talked about at MDCs 1 to 5 but MDCs would incur costs in doing this (eg storage, handling and insertion) and a payment would seem to be justified. I did discuss the possibility of payment at the Grace MDC (MDC 6 above) and that was greeted with enthusiasm: “When would we get paid? The same day?”. I said that I thought that payment would come when there was proof of delivery to the outlets.

When I went to Grace MDC I was unaccompanied and made it clear that I did not work for Coca-Cola but was there at Coca-Cola’s invitation. This made the conversation much more cautious and the initial reaction to the idea was totally negative. “It’s a bad idea. The only thing that should go in the crates is Coca-Cola”. However, when I explained that this would be done with the sanction of Coca-Cola (or not at all) and that the wedges would arrive on the Coca-Cola lorry the attitude changed completely. “No, this is a good idea”. So although the wedges would not be branded ‘Coca-Cola’ it would appear that the sanction of Coca-Cola is absolutely essential.

Other background information

  1. Benito looks after 17 MDCs
  2. Six of these are owned by women
  3. Mwenge South (which was tiny and had crates filled high everywhere) was shifting 230 crates a day.
  4. Generally speaking an MDC takes a whole truck load of crates. I a minority of deliveries is the delivery shared between two or more MDCs.
  5. Truck capacities are: 390, 520, 780 or 910 crates.
  6. All the deliveries I saw were in the full-depth crates although I did see ‘Ian Bishop’ crates in the MDCs

Thanks to Coca-Cola Kwanza for allowing me to accompany Benito and to Benito for being such great company.

Filed Under: Background Data, Coca-Cola Campaign, Meetings, Tanzania, Tanzania Trip Nov 08 Tagged With: , , , , ,
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