I’m just back from my latest field trip to Katete. On these trips, I’m always aware that, as a 6’2″ white observer with weird hair, my mere presence has an impact on what I’m observing. This was really brought home to me on this trip when I was accompanied by three other white faces. Things got very [...]
Phase 2 Community-based marketing gets underway
28 April 2013 by 2 Comments
Seven months ago, when we started the ColaLife trial, nobody knew what a Kit Yamoyo anti-diarrhoea kit was. So the first 6 months of the community-based marking activity has been about awareness raising and the launch of a completely new product (Kit Yamoyo) into remote rural areas of Kalomo and Katete. A key tool to [...]
Setting up for an exciting few days in Katete
3 April 2013 by Leave a Comment
It felt like a weekend this morning as I packed my cycling stuff, put the bike rack and bike on the back of the Land Rover and set off on a six-hour drive across Zambia. But I was in fact going to work. Three hours into the drive I got a call from a number [...]
Our concept for the distribution of medicines by rural retailers plays out in real life
23 March 2013 by 4 Comments
In November 2012 the rural health centres in Kalomo District in Zambia had not received ORS for several months due to a lack of stock at national level. In January, I visited one of these health centres and asked the Clinical Officer in charge if she’d received any ORS yet. She said they had received [...]
Curating chaos
22 February 2013 by 1 Comment
It’s all very well sitting in an office and planning something to within an inch of its life – which is what we did – but you need to try things out to really learn and plan properly. In theory the value chain we have created works like this: We create a desirable product – an [...]
