ColaLife
| ColaLife
|
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | Company Limited by Guarantee (non-profit) |
| founding | 2009 |
| Seat | Rugby (Warwickshire) |
| management | Simon Berry |
| Website | www.colalife.org |
ColaLife Limited ( Private company limited by guarantee ) is a not-for-profit company based in the United Kingdom. The company's goal is to use existing commercial distribution networks (e.g. the Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) network) to increase the availability of simple, basic medicines in rural areas in developing countries .
history
1988-2008
The idea for ColaLife came to Simon Berry in 1988 while working as a development aid worker in northeastern Zambia . He noticed that he could get a Coke in every village, but at the same time every fifth child there died before his fifth birthday from easily treatable diseases. This was the case because there was no well-developed distribution network for drugs. His idea was therefore to use the Coca-Cola network to distribute these drugs. He tried to win TCCC for his idea, which failed due to a lack of communication possibilities.
2008 until today
In 2008 TCCC took part in the British Government's Business Call To Action, which is why Berry decided to try again to advance his idea. He tried to do this primarily through the use of social networks and online communities such as Facebook , Flickr and Twitter . The idea quickly gained supporters, but it didn't really help to get to Coca-Cola. Every attempt to speak to those responsible in TCCC's CSR department was in vain. To change this, Berry tried to get an interview with the iPM program on Radio 4 of the BBC .
On May 21, 2008, Berry was interviewed by Eddie Mair on the BBC. The iPM team tried to get a comment from TCCC regarding the interview and they succeeded. Shortly before the broadcast, the iPM team received a letter from Salvatore Gabola (TCCC's Global Director of Stakeholder Relations), in which he signaled his willingness to talk to Simon Berry.
ColaLife has been in contact with TCCC since this conversation. Simon Berry and his wife Jane Berry now work full-time for ColaLife Limited, which was founded in 2009.
Virtual advisory board
This committee is made up of experts and prominent personalities, who should help advance the idea through their knowledge, contacts and reputation. Members of the committee are:
- Don Nutbeam , Professor of Public Health and Vice Chancellor of the University of Southampton .
- Ian Goldman , Social Development Specialist in Africa
- Prashant Yadav , Professor of Supply Chain Management at the Zaragoza Logistics Center and research partner of the MIT Center for Transport and Logistics.
concept
The ColaLife concept is based on three facts:
- Commercial products find their way to the most rural areas in Africa
- In the same areas, one in five children will die before their fifth birthday from preventable causes, mainly diarrhea.
- This number has not changed fundamentally in the last 30 years, which means that previous initiatives are not working as well as they should.
Therefore, ColaLife aims to supplement the distribution channels for drugs by using the commercial networks, so that they also cover the so-called last mile . This is only possible if the drugs do not displace commercial products. For this reason, a so-called aid pod was developed, a wedge-shaped container that uses the unused space between bottle necks , for example. In addition to WHO drinking solutions , water-cleaning tablets or other helpful social products could also be transported.
At the destination, the receipt of the Aidpods could be confirmed, for example, by a system based on SMS technology. In connection with this, a micropayment could also be triggered.
Awards and promotions
| year | description | comment |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | The New Statesman ’s New Media Awards | nominated |
| 2010 | Buckminster Fuller Challenge | ColaLife was one of 30 semi-finalists |
| 2010 | UnLtd Award for Social Entrepreneurs | Grant of £ 15,000 to cover the cost of living to work full time for ColaLife. |
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Diarrhea: Why children are still dying and what can be done (PDF; 3.2 MB) World Health Organization. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
- ↑ Is Coca-Cola it? . BBC. Retrieved December 18, 2010.
- ^ New Media 2008 nominations . New Statesman. Archived from the original on December 7, 2010. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 18, 2010.
- ^ The 2010 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Semi-Finalists . The Buckminster Fuller Institute. Retrieved December 18, 2010.
- ↑ UnLtd Level 2 Award Winners . Archived from the original on July 4, 2010. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 18, 2010.
