The end of the line – the test run

Yesterday was a wonderful day, the when the first Kit Yamoyos actually made it into the hands of mothers (and fathers) of young children in a remote village – Siachitema – in rural Zambia. This was the end of my week-long trip to the field, following the Kit Yamoyos through the distribution chain looking for the glitches in the systems before we go live next month.

Yesterday’s story is best told with pictures (and one video clip) so here we go.

08:15am

Hans Hesse from Zoona (aka Mobile Transactions Zambia Limited) meets with Keepers Zambia Foundation staff in Kalomo: Charlotte (Field Facilitator, Kalomo); Elias (Project Officer, Katete); Hans (Zoona) and Boyd Hakubeja (Project Officer, Kalomo). Training in voucher activation begins.

 09:45am

We arrive in Siachitema and meet up with the shop keepers, mothers and their children. Field facilitator Charlotte explains how the voucher works.
 

10:00am

Mothers are given vouchers, whilst our first Kit Yamoyos, bought by the shop keepers on Friday at the Choma Wholesaler, are lined up with all the other commodities in the shops. Note our Product Training Manual on the bottom RHS of picture 4!

10:30am

In the meantime a father passes with his daughter, hears the commotion around the Kit Yamoyo and buys one to keep at home for the next time his daughter gets diarrhoea (result!). Meanwhile, village life goes on around us.

11:00am

Mothers come forward to exchange their voucher for a Kit Yamoyo. There is lots of good hearted banter about who should be first and queue jumping!

11:00am

Voucher PIN numbers are revealed as the voucher redemption training concludes. That’s the shop owner (Joy) in the red shirt watching her daughter get the hang of the Zoona system in no time at all. For those interested in the process, here’s video of Albert (Keepers Zambia Foundation) running through the process for the camera . . . . listen out for the buzz about Kit Yamoyo in the background!

Noon

We are done and as I’m leaving I catch this woman reading the instructions written in Tonga on the Kit Yamoyo leaflet.

What a great day. I’ve been dreaming of this day for more than 20 years!

I am now confident that the distribution system works and is ready for the start of the trial next month. We came across a few glitches but nothing major. Most of these were sorted out ‘on the fly’ and the others can be fixed over the next two weeks.

Onwards and upwards.

For those of you still reading, here are a few more miscellaneous pictures from the day . . .

Albert trains in the Kit Yamoyo voucher redemption	Taking up the Kit Yamoyo Special Offer
Children seem to like the Kit Yamoyo as much as their mothers do
The Muzungus on the team (Simon and Hans) with mothers
Voucher remption works on any phone	Advertising! We got one up on Airtel there!