Adrian reports from the UN
September 30, 2008 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Adrian Ristow writes:
My first time at UN week (22-26 September, 2008) in New York.
Wow, what an experience! I knew that there was something special on the go when I couldn’t get near the entrance to my hotel because the secret service had blocked off a number of roads in Manhattan.
In between the anxiety caused by the financial crisis in the US and the Presidential debate I am pleased to say that there was quite a lot of discussion about the Millennium Development Goals and a lot of focus on Africa as well at many different events.
Besides the main UN events, there were a number of development focused events taking place, the most notable that I had some involvement with being the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI).
A real highlight of the week for me was being able to attend the awards ceremony of the CGI which recognizes individual commitment to the world’s major problems. It was a treat to be able to sit right next to the stage and hear James Taylor singing an awesome version of ‘Friend’ - hopefully a prophetic statement from those gathered in New York towards Africa.
Adrian
Adrian Ristow, has been reporting here, on the ColaLife blog, on the research being carried out by Coca-Cola into their distribution network in Tanzania and Ethiopia.
Google’s Project 10^100
September 28, 2008 by Simon Berry · 2 Comments
Project 10100
Google’s Project 10100 looks like a good opportunity for ColaLife which I will be looking in to. Any ideas on how to complete the submission form will be very gratefully received. Please leave comment on this post. Below is the promotional video for the Google project.
Belching Out the Devil: Global Adventures with Coca-Cola by Mark Thomas
September 27, 2008 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Mark Thomas and his publishers have done a brilliant job promoting his new book. A feature article in the Guardian (who are also selling his book) and a long interview on Radio 4’s You & Yours on 26/9/08. This will result on lots of people searching for the book and hopefully this post will pop up in those searches and this campaign will get to a wider audience. In the introduction to his book Mark says:
Coca-Cola and its logo are everywhere. In our homes, our workplaces, even our schools. It is a company that sponsors the Olympics, backs US presidents and even re-brands Santa Claus. A truly universal product, it has even been served in space.
It is for precisely this reason that we want to work with Coca-Cola. We want to use Coca-Cola’s amazing distribution channels in developing countries to save children’s lives. Please register your support by joining our Facebook Group. Thanks.
Below is a video of Mark talking about his book.
ORS - the ‘magic bullet’
September 20, 2008 by Simon Berry · 1 Comment
I have been searching for weeks for good photographs to show the impact Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) can have on a child with dehydration from diarrhoea. Then a member of the ColaLife Google Group came to my rescue, pointing me to a scientific paper published in 1994 with these amazing pictures showing a girl and boy before and after treatment. Please note the expressions on their mothers’ faces - they say it all.
So, if you can get Oral Rehydration Salts to where children need them and people know how to use them they are magic!
But we must also remember that the educational side of this campaign is also crucial. Ideally, children would not get diarrohoea in the first place so hygiene and sanitation education is also important. And when children do get sick then you need to know how to use the ORS.
So, in this campaign, the distribution of ORS is a ‘device’ for the stimulation of other educational activity. Maybe the ORS should have plastic, educational posters strapped to them that could be placed in places people gather, perhaps the fact that there is a mechanism to distribute ORS would be the catalyst required to stimulate a local extension programme.
You can’t look at these pictures and say this is not something worth fighting for. Can you?
Thanks to talkSPORT listeners
September 16, 2008 by Simon Berry · 1 Comment
The Facebook Group numbers were up by more than the usual this morning thanks to talkSPORT listeners across the country. Thanks to all those who followed through from the interview that went out in the very early hours of this morning. We are now 5,710.
I got a call while on the train yesterday morning from talkSPORT Radio to ask if I’d do an interview for The Ultimate Later Night Show with Adrian Goldberg. Adrian has been supporting the ColaLife Campaign from the very early days and has featured it on The Stirrer Blog. - ‘news that matters, campaigns that count’. I hadn’t realised that Adrian also hosted the talkSPORT Show.
Thanks for being so generous with your networks Adrian . . . we must meet up some time and I must buy you a beer!
Mothers tell their story
September 13, 2008 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
I first found this video heavily embedded in the Save The Children’s Kroo Bay site. But it’s also on YouTube so I’m able to place it right here. This is the sort of despair this campaign is trying to stop.
More videos from Save the Children.
ColaLife Buzz Monitor now in place
September 12, 2008 by Simon Berry · 3 Comments
We now have a place to go to monitor all the talk about the ColaLife. The ColaLife Aggregator has been built using Pageflakes and draws items from:
- This ColaLife Blog - colalife.org/blog
- Blog posts picked by Technorati and Google Blog Search
- References to ColaLife on Twitter
- Bookmarks with the ‘colalife’ tag in Delicious
- Pictures from the ColaLife group in Flickr
- Videos from YouTube
Please leave a comment if you have other sources. Thanks.
5,500 - a significant number
September 8, 2008 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Over the next couple of days the number of members of the ColaLife Facebook Group is likely to reach 5,500. This is a lot of support and a force to be reckoned with. Coincidentally, it’s also the approximate number of children, under the age of 5, who will die in Africa over the next 24 hours from simple causes such as dehydration from diarrohoea.
Please join the campaign through the Facebook Group if you’re not a member already . . . and invite your friends and get them to spread the word too.
Here are some other ways to show your support.
Onwards and upwards.
Calling all innovative designers
September 6, 2008 by Simon Berry · 5 Comments
Let’s project ourselves 12 weeks into the future and imagine that by then Coca-Cola will have committed to undertake trials of our idea in east Africa.
And let’s imagine all the answers we will have to come up with. Like “How are we going to incorporate non-Coke items in Coca-Cola crates?”
Questions like this spark other questions like “What are the dimensions of the Coca-Cola crates and bottles used in east Africa?” and so on.
Can anyone with thoughts, answers or more questions please post them here by commenting? Click here and scroll down.
There are now nearly 5,500 members of the Facebook Group from all over the World; there are employees of Coca-Cola looking at this website along with people from the frontline in Africa, Asia and South America and some of the best design brains in the business . . . . The genius is in the network! Let’s see what we can come up with. Your contributions please!
Sustainability: building a system with people not for people
September 5, 2008 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Image credit: Tielman Nieuwoudt
Here’s the latest from Adrian Ristow who’s been leading the research into Coca-Cola distribution in east Africa:
A bit of a gap in communication from me - but my August has been a bit different this year; I had to spend some time back in South Africa on some other work. But the MDC (Manual Distribution Centre) research project has been on my mind and I’m as excited as ever about the future - ’super excited’, as some of my super American friends would say
I’ve spent a lot of time speaking to MDC owners and their staff, as well as with the key sales staff from the local bottling company, to get a deeper understanding of the current reality and future potential. So much so that I’m dreaming Coca-Cola dreams at night and visiting MDCs in my sleep! Maybe that’s not such a bad thing: nothing happens if you don’t have a dream, and my ultimate vision is for this system to spread and grow - beyond what any of us can imagine at present.
A key goal was to understand better the current community benefits of the locally-owned distribution businesses, through the eyes of external researchers. We also wanted to get a clearer understanding of the priority social issues facing MDC owners, their staff and the surrounding communities. This feedback will help us find ways to enhance the community benefit from the MDCs, while importantly not risking the income of the entrepreneurs who earn their livelihoods from these businesses. We’re not looking for a trade-off or a compromise, but a win:win solution that will let the market work for us.
One of my biggest challenges is patience. It would be great to do everything now, but then I am reminded that we are dealing with an extensive network of independently owned small businesses. We want to build a unique and sustainable solution with them not for them, which can take a bit of time.
However, we’ll soon be able to move from the research phase and building the conceptual understanding to some practical on-the-ground testing. Now our team are reviewing and analysing the research data that we collected during July, and we’re aiming to share some key findings towards the end of September. So watch this space!
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