In a recent post I tried to quantify the Kit Yamoyo Legacy and indicated that I’d follow-up with a post on how we think this legacy was achieved. We think it boils down to eight principles and furthermore we think that if ‘foreign bodies’ (international NGOs and aid agencies) followed these principles, we would see […]
Final Visit to Zambia – Week 1
23 June 2023 by
It’s been five years since our involvement in Zambia ceased. It ended formally at the Last Learning & Steering Group Meeting on 6-Sep-2018 and we’ve not been back since. Reportedly, things have been carrying on without us. Now we are here we can see for ourselves. The reason for the trip is to tie up […]
What’s a Trim Tab? And have we found one to address the childhood diarrhoea death toll?
17 September 2021 by
In 1972, Buckminster Fuller, the famous inventor, architect and philosopher, explained his insight about part of a ship – the ‘trim tab’ – and the power of a trim tab as a metaphor, to understand how one small adjustment can bring about transformative change. And I wondered: could co-packaging for ORS and Zinc be the […]
Zambia takes on Kit Yamoyo
9 October 2018 by
A landmark: on 6-Sep-18, almost seven years to the day since we moved to Zambia to make a simple diarrhoea treatment as ubiquitous as Coca-Cola, 27 people from 20 key Zambian projects and organisations came to discuss Kit Yamoyo – the kit of life. With over 75 people on our final report mailing list, it […]
Zambia adds co-packaged ORS and zinc to Essential Medicines List
27 September 2018 by
The final Steering & Learning Group Meeting for the KYTS Programme was held in Lusaka on 6-Sep-18. The meeting was chaired by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Dr Kennedy Malama. At this meeting Dr Malama confirmed that the Ministry of Health, through their Formulary Committee, had added co-packaged ORS and Zinc to […]
More designs on change: What do health and nutrition staff think?
29 April 2018 by
At the end of last year, we completed our project, run with our partner KZF, supporting rural health centres with Kit Yamoyo: training staff, boosting supply and monitoring change. Other findings from the KYTS-ACE Project can be found here: colalife.org/category/kyts-ace-findings It was the first time that rural health centres across some of the most vulnerable and […]
The Zambia Report – Oct-17
22 November 2017 by
I was in Zambia for a support visit from 18-Oct-17 to 9-Nov-17. I travelled by myself this time while Jane travelled to the U.S. to deliver a presentation about our work at an event organised by one of our supporters – Ceniarth. Here are some of the highlights and lowlights of the trip. A meeting […]
Update: Co-packaged ORS/Zinc on the WHO Essential Medicines List for Children (EMLc)
7 June 2017 by
As reported earlier, we are working to get co-packaged ORS and Zinc on WHO’s Essential Medicines List for Children (EMLc). We are doing this because the circumstantial evidence suggests that while ORS and Zinc are listed separately on the EMLc they will be procured and supplied separately and rarely dispensed together. The combined use of […]
Why isn’t co-packaged ORS and Zinc on the WHO Essential Medicines for Children?
10 March 2017 by
In the evening of 28-Jan-17, four days into our latest support trip to Zambia, the penny dropped. Why isn’t co-packaged ORS and Zinc on WHO’s Essential Medicines List for Children (EMLc)? Oral rehydration salts are listed. Zinc is listed. But the global recommendation of ORS and Zinc together is not listed. To quote WHO: Essential […]
1,400 kits per day – 2016 ex-factory sales
12 February 2017 by
In 2016, Pharmanova sold an average of 1,400 kits of co-packaged ORS/Zinc per working day. This is a remarkable achievement in a country where, in 2013, 99% of diarrhoea cases were not treated with ORS and Zinc in common with the other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The following kits left the Pharmanova factory in 2016: Original […]
