Building up to the test run and more

Sorry for the lack of blog posts just recently. It’s not that nothing has been happening – quite the contrary in fact. Last week alone we have collectively:

1. delivered the approved training materials to the printers
2. been developing the social marketing strategy
3. designed the sampling framework for the monitoring of the trial
4. visited Kalomo to lay the foundations for the test run of the distribution system
5. started recording the location of rural retailers in Kalomo and Katete
6. received our signed Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Health. This has taken absolutely ages for no apparent reason at all. We are very pleased to have it. It makes everything official and clear.

We also had an implementation partners’ meeting where we focussed on the test run of the assembly, packing and distribution of the Kit Yamoyos. As a basis for this I prepared the above flow diagram showing who was responsible for what. Long term supporters will notice a key change from the original plan, namely: Pharmanova will be assembling the Kit Yamoyos and storing the components and packaging. In the original plan MSL were going to do this as a ‘favour’. This is not MSL’s core business: MSL is a distributor. Pharmanova, on the other hand, does assemble health kits and it also supplying 2 of the Kit Yamoyo components: the soap and ORS. This bodes well for the future. If we are successful and need to scale up, Pharmanova would be a good ‘assembly’ partner.

This week Claire Ward arrives with her camera! She will be with us for 4 weeks to capture the excitement of the test run . . . watch this space!