Giant AidPod installation at NESTA
May 23, 2009 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Isn’t this fabulous?! It looks like the giant ColaLife AidPod is off to spend some time on display at NESTA whose strapline is: ‘making innovation flourish’. This is a mock-up of the installation that I received last night from Mark at theWorkshop who have put a lot of time (and money) into the production of the giant aidpod which is destined to be paraded around London if we get through to the last 100 in Google’s Project 10 to the 100th competion for ideas that will change the world.
NESTA are working on a handbook as part of their Generating social innovation project and the ColaLife campaign is set to feature in that, so it is appropriate that the giant aidpod is to be displayed by NESTA as a conversation starter and smile inducer.
Thanks again to Mark and his team at theWorkshop for their support.
Help to raise the profile of ColaLife on our Birthday
May 18, 2009 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Would you like to do something really significant on the birthday of ColaLife’s Facebook Group? If yes, then please comment on these two independent articles: click on the links below and add a comment, mentioning ColaLife, to the article you see. This will really help raise our profile. Thanks.
Business Week
Coke: On Doing Well by Doing Go
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Onwards and upwards!
ColaLife gets mention in HARVARD report
May 17, 2009 by Simon Berry · 3 Comments
Last week the HARVARD Kennedy School and the IFC published their report into the research into Coca-Cola’s Manual Distribution System undertaken in East Africa in the summer of 2008. We reported on this here. The report can be downloaded here: harvard-ifc-mdc-summary-report-final (PDF, 2.3 MB).
The good news is that ColaLife is mentioned:
In November 2008, once the study’s initial findings were available, Coca-Cola convened a multi-stakeholder dialogue in Tanzania to seek input on the fi ndings. The session was attended by development practitioners from the NGO, government and international agency community to debate and explore some of the research recommendations in more detail. Co-facilitated by Business Action for Africa and the International Business Leaders Forum, the dialogue included a wide range of participants including local, regional and international representatives from organizations such as Save the Children, Population Services International, Enablis, CARE International, Colalife, the U.K.’s Department for International Development, the United States Agency for International Development, SNV Netherlands Development Corporation and UNICEF.
And so does the distribution of social products:
In these two countries and others where the MDC model is being implemented, there is potential to leverage this network of thousands of small enterprises that are located in low-income communities to achieve broader development goals, such as the distribution of social products or support for social marketing. This broader effort cannot and should not be the responsibility of the company alone. Nor must it undermine the core commercial viability of these small enterprises. Failure to maintain profi tability would clearly undermine the business model and thereby jeopardize the long-term contribution it can make to development. Yet, by working in partnership with other companies, donors, government bodies or development experts there is potential for the network of MDCs to be leveraged in a targeted way to address other development needs.
This is a huge achievement given that this was the starting point . . . . when there was no mention of social products at all:
Find more videos like this on Business Fights Poverty
Simply brilliant!
Welcome to the ColaLife office
May 14, 2009 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
I am a total sucker for new technology and gadgets and I was starting to look like a bit of a nurd until this campaign started and has demonstrated just what you can do with this stuff.
Anyway, I met up last night with my friend David Wilcox who’s been a bit of a mentor of mine in this area and always has the next gadget that I wish I could have. We met upstairs in the Marquis of Granby on Dean Bradley Street. This is just opposite where I work and as become the ColaLife office. I have met so many amazing people in there since the campaign has started. Many schemes have been hatched in the Marquis of Granby.
Anyway David had his iPhone (which I wish I had) with him with the AudioBoo application (which I was I had) on it and he recorded this:
And took this picture:
And AudioBoo sorted out the mapping (so now you know where the ColaLife office is):
A conversation with Mark Ellis of sounddelivery
May 13, 2009 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
A big thank you to the folks at sounddelivery, Mark Ellis and Eric Whelan in particular, for the creativity that went into this audio feature which was recorded on the evening of 25/3/09 and summarised the ColaLife story so far. The feature mixes audio from various sources.
Since the interview Coca-Cola have confirmed that they plan to carry out trials of the ColaLife idea later this year in Tanzania.
Malaria No More - has the time for the single issue charity come?
May 6, 2009 by Simon Berry · 1 Comment
Community development is always more complex than it looks. ‘Quick fixes’ are ‘out’ and ‘holistic approaches’ are ‘in’. But I wonder if there are exceptions to this philosophy. I think there are some things that just need to be fixed and I also think that a less holistic approach might actually help in some circumstances.
I happened to catch this feature on Radio 4’s Today programme, 6:45am, 20 April 2009:
‘Malaria no more‘ is a recently established, single issue NGO that is just focussed on eliminating deaths from Malaria, no more, no less. And when it has done that it will disband (I understand). Around half the children that die before their fifth birthday, that ColaLife is so concerned about, die from Malaria. That’s 10% of children in Africa, or 2 a minute. Basically, that is not acceptable in 2009 and it has to stop. Full stop. That is what ‘Malaria no more’ is determined to do.
I wonder how they will distribute their bed nets and anti-malarial drugs?
The ColaLife story as told by the BBC’s iPM programme
May 4, 2009 by Simon Berry · 1 Comment
The BBC’s iPM programme, which goes out on a Saturday on Radio 4, has maintained a keen interest in the ColaLife story. For convenience, I have brought together the features they have created and broadcast in the last 12 months into this post (see below). In addition to these broadcasts, Jennifer Tracey, of iPM did a follow-up interview at the 2gether08 festival on 3/7/08. You can listen to the feature here or watch David Wilcox’s video of the interview here.
24/5/08
A big thank you everyone at iPM
Highlights: Includes an interview and song from Eve Graham, the original lead singer of the New Seekers hit ‘I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing’ which became a Coca-Cola commercial in the early 70s and a statement of interest from Coca-Cola
(the whole feature)
(Eve Graham’s song only)
27/12/08
ColaLife on BBC (UK) National Radio (27/12/08)
Highlights: Summarises the progress of the first 8 months of the campaign, the development of the idea and first reactions from the frontline in Tanzania.
25/4/09
Coca-Cola confirm their commitment to ColaLife trials . . on BBC Radio 4
Highlights: This interview brought together Coca-Cola’s Euan Wilmshurst and Simon Berry to discuss Coca-Cola’s commitment to trials of the ColaLife idea before the end of 2009.
Further evidence of need - the Guardian’s Katine Project
May 3, 2009 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Image credit: Katine Project, Guardian Newspapers
Following the ColaLife presentation at last week’s Africa Gathering, we have been asked to provide an article to feature on the website that supports the Katine Project. This meant that Jane, who volunteered to write the article, had to do a bit of research into Katine.
Anyway, here are some selected quotes from the first evaluation of the project. Note that lack of availability of simple drugs is a key issue:
The huge issue of access to drug supplies was consistently identified as the main barrier to the successful implementation of health programmes in Katine. Lack of anti-malarials and other basic medication meant Amref health staff could not distribute drug storage kits to VHTs. Health centre staff labelled lack of drugs stocks a “chronic problem” and said that a lack of transport, doctors, equipment and power was also causing serious challenges.
At Ojom health centre, Richard Okello, the district nurse, outlines the most common health problems he has to deal with in Katine.
The biggest problem we face on a day to day level is malaria,” says Okello, who describes the disease as “rampant” in Katine. “The problem is that because of the problems with drugs supply, we usually don’t have enough or any malaria medicine to give people.
Currently the Ojom clinic doesn’t have any first-line malaria drugs left in stock.
“The problem is a lot of our patents are very poor so they can’t afford to go straight on to second-line treatment,” he says. “As a nurse you sympathise and feel really bad for them and just pray that the patient will be helped by a drug delivery but it doesn’t always happen.”
“The problem is that people are so worried about health they expect we can come in and provide solutions to everything and we simply don’t have the resources to do that,” he says. “There is such a huge need for improved health services, for a better drug supply chain, for more and better equipped clinics, but there is a limit to what we can realistically achieve.”
Preventable diseases cause 75% of premature deaths.. diarrhoea amongst most common problems.. one in five children in Katine are moderately or severely underweight.
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