This discussion is based on ColaLife’s field experience in Zambia during the Kit Yamoyo trial (2012-13) and subsequent scale-up (2014-2018) as well as informal discussions with colleagues working in this area and common sense. There is a dearth of research on this specific topic, although it is possible to extrapolate from the scant literature that […]
How many sachets of ORS should an ORS/Zinc co-pack contain and what size should they be?
16 February 2023 by
Top 5 Achievements in 2020
31 December 2020 by
2009’s top 10 | 2010’s top 10 | 2011’s top 10 | 2012’s top 10 | 2013’s top 10 2014’s top 10 | 2015’s top 10 | 2016’s top 10 | 2017’s top 10 | 2018’s top 10 2019’s top 5 The COVID pandemic has made 2020 a difficult year for us all. We have not made as […]
Amcor donate packaging for one million ORS/Zinc co-packs
28 September 2020 by
Amcor, our scale-up packaging partner, has donated the packaging for a further 1 million ORS/Zinc co-packs. These will be used by Pharmanova in Zambia to assemble ORS/Zinc co-packs for the government – branded as the GRZ ORS/Zinc co-pack – and for the private sector – branded as Kit Yamoyo. The shipment will leave London on […]
Access to Medicines Conference, Geneva, 25-May-17
26 May 2017 by
It was an honour to be asked to present the ColaLife Story at a conference in Geneva organised by Takeda on the subject of access to medicines. The presentation was very well received and was a reminder back to me of how much we’ve actually achieved and the hurdles we’ve overcome along the way. The […]
New Kit Yamoyo Screw-top format hits the supermarket shelves
8 May 2017 by
This is such exciting news. Nearly 4 years after the screw-top format of Kit Yamoyo was conceived and designed, it has finally hit the Shoprite supermarket shelves in Zambia. These pictures are just in from our team on the frontline via WhatsApp. As is often the case in ColaLife, the route the screw-top format took to […]
Making the Case for Inclusion of Co-packaged ORS/Zinc on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines for Children (EMLc)
27 March 2017 by
The WHO Model List of Essential Medicines For four decades, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has devoted substantial effort to an essential medicines programme that seeks to improve access to the most needed drugs and devices. The meeting of the 21st WHO Expert Committee on the Selection and Use of Essential Medicines will be held […]
PI Global reunited
18 November 2016 by
It was fantastic to meet up with Chris Griffin and Eric Connolly of PI Global again, face-to-face after three years. We met in the amazing setting of the new Museum of Brands, Packaging & Advertising (the brainchild of Chris) last week (9-Nov-16). PI Global were our packaging partner in the COTZ Trial. They made our […]
Rohit Ramchandani’s DrPH thesis published online
12 November 2016 by
We are very pleased to announce that Rohit Ramchandani’s DrPH thesis (Jan-16) has finally been published on the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries website. It’s entitled: EMULATING COMMERCIAL, PRIVATE-SECTOR VALUE-CHAINS TO IMPROVE ACCESS TO ORS AND ZINC IN RURAL ZAMBIA: EVALUATION OF THE COLALIFE TRIAL. The abstract can be read directly from the website here (and […]
A picture is worth a 1000 words: visualizing the challenges of effective diarrhoea treatment
3 October 2016 by
Towards the beginning of our journey in Zambia (May-12), we undertook a human-centred design process to better understand the challenges mothers face when treating their children suffering from diarrhoea. This revealed that the standard 1-litre ORS sachets available in the country (and most of the world) were not ideal for home treatment. Amongst other challenges, […]
The world is safe in their hands – winners of the RSA Student Design Awards announced
8 June 2016 by
It was an honour and an inspiration to be involved in the judging of one of this year’s RSA Student Design Awards – the AfricaPack – designs to improve the way medicines are protected, dispensed, distributed and/or taken in Sub-Saharan Africa sponsored by GSK. There were more than 50 entries and from these six made […]
