ColaLife - An Update

We couldn’t be more thrilled to have discovered the wonderful work of Simon and Jane Berry.  If we sometimes feel proud of our own proactive decision to take control of our lives, get on our bikes and cycle the length of Africa, their decision to move to Zambia and explore ways to improve the lives of others through their innovative ColaLife project leaves us reeling, it is an incredibly inspiring story.  The couple live and breathe ColaLife and it’s been infectious to be around during our time in Zambia.  [For an introduction to the project, see our previous blog post from when we met in the UK, or check out their website]

The purpose of the ColaLife trial

 

The ColaLife trial (testing the ability for profit-driven supply chains to improve the availability of anti-diarrhoea kits in rural communities – see picture) is running in Katete in eastern Zambia and Kalomo in the south.  Our route has taken us through both of those districts and happily also through Lusaka where we spent a lovely afternoon with Simon and Jane hearing more about the project (but also making good use of their swimming pool and food supply!)  Following the slight inconvenience of the previously mentioned riots in Katete, we pedalled speedily through our 183km day in time to spend the afternoon in Kalomo with Simon where his Zambian colleagues, Charlotte and  Moses had pulled out all the stops to arrange a very insightful afternoon where we got to see the ColaLife model in action.

Click here to see the video in YouTube

Speaking with the women that had travelled to the store to meet with us and tell us their stories was one of the most powerful experiences which we have had on this trip.  It was wonderful to observe the dynamic in the group as the women giggled and teased one another, at times humming their response to a question in unison with a communal ‘uh huh’ as they hitched they children up on their waists and wiped their faces.  Their reports on the impact of Kit Yamoyo being available to them through the local retailers was nothing but positive. 

A mother tells us about her experience of the Kit Yamoyo

There was a recent mid-trial review, which showed that the project is going well with over 20,000 kits sold across the two districts – a great result. More kits have been ordered to meet demand. For the first six months of the trial, vouchers were distributed to mothers with children under-5, to create awareness of the Kit Yamoyo (Kit of Life). The mothers speak so well of the effectiveness of the kit (they joked about accusations of witch-craft given the speed with which it worked) that they would be willing to pay 5 Kwacha ($1) for the kit, as they will have to do for the final six months of the trial as the vouchers are removed; whether this happens is of crucial importance to proving if the ColaLife model for distributing medical supplies works. To put this money in perspective, the women we saw would have to pay up to 30 Kwacha to go to the nearest medical centre in order to receive ORS medicine through the government distribution route. 

The Kit is also gaining international prestige, winning a design award ahead of the Olympic Cauldron, and also being the subject of a Bill Gates tweet last week! Click here for the @BillGates' tweet 

The money we are raising for ColaLife will continue to help them subsidise the cost of the kits, making them affordable to mothers (as the manufacturing cost is more than 5 Kwacha), and allow them to scale up the project beyond the existing test districts – we really believe this is a fantastic project so please help by clicking here to sponsor us.