Colalife
Encyclopedia
ColaLife is a company limited by Guarantee (non-profit) which aims to leverage the distribution network of The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC)
to get simple medicines, such as rehydration salts, and information on how to use them, to the most remote areas in developing countries. The ColaLife Company has its origin in the ColaLife movement, and is currently on the way to become a registered charity in the United Kingdom.
programme, iPM.
In-parallel, first attempts to communicate with Coca-Cola failed, because it was not possible to get past the first line in Coca-Cola’s CSR
department. Social media technologies such as Facebook
, Flickr
and Twitter
, helped get more people behind the idea quickly.
On May 21, 2008, Berry was interviewed by Eddie Mair
for the iPM Programme. The interview was featured on May 24. Three days before the broadcast, the iPM team received a written statement from Coca-Cola’s then Global Director for Stakeholder Relations, Salvatore Gabola, that he would be happy to have a chat on this subject with Simon in the near future. Eddie Mair coined the term Aidpod in his interview with Simon Berry broadcast on 27.12.2008.
This was the start of an ongoing relationship between the ColaLife campaign and TCCC. Since this first contact with TCCC and the first report about ColaLife on the BBC, the campaign has won supporters from all around the world. In 2010, Simon Berry and his wife Jane decided to work full-time for ColaLife to move it from a campaign into an implementation phase.
ColaLife aims to use Coca-Cola’s and other companies’ distribution channels, which offer deep, local penetration in developing countries, to save lives, particularly children’s, to improve supply chains for health products, especially for the so-called Last Mile
.
The AidPod concept proposes filling unused space between crated bottles, to carry social products such as oral rehydration salts, vitamin A, water purification tablets and other locally determined items to remote areas. An AidPod is a wedge-shaped container that fits inside the unused space between the necks of the bottles in a crate of Coca-Cola.
To be sustainable, ColaLife proposes models where local micro-enterprise
s, which make money out of collecting, distributing and selling crates of Coca-Cola, can also make money by delivering Aidpods. In practice, an SMS-based system could be implemented to:
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation and manufacturer, retailer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. The company is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in Columbus, Georgia...
to get simple medicines, such as rehydration salts, and information on how to use them, to the most remote areas in developing countries. The ColaLife Company has its origin in the ColaLife movement, and is currently on the way to become a registered charity in the United Kingdom.
1988 - 2008
In 1988, Simon Berry was working on the British Aid Programme in NE Zambia, conscious that while he could buy a bottle of Coke anywhere, one in every five children under the age of five died in these areas through simple causes such as dehydration through diarrhea. So he had the idea that Coca-Cola’s distribution muscle could be used to distribute oral rehydration salts in developing countries. At that time, with only a telex machine available, he struggled to get any attention for his idea.2008 until today
In 2008 Coca-Cola’s participation at the Business Call To Action event re-kindled the idea. The active work for ColaLife was started with a first blog post in the founder’s personal Blog. This Blog post did not attract Coca-Cola’s attention, so Berry decided to try to get the idea debated on the BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
programme, iPM.
In-parallel, first attempts to communicate with Coca-Cola failed, because it was not possible to get past the first line in Coca-Cola’s CSR
Corporate social responsibility
Corporate social responsibility is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model...
department. Social media technologies such as Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, Flickr
Flickr
Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
and Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, helped get more people behind the idea quickly.
On May 21, 2008, Berry was interviewed by Eddie Mair
Eddie Mair
Eddie Mair is a British BBC radio and television presenter. He presents BBC Radio 4's daily news magazine PM also the Radio 4 Saturday only iPM and the BBC's NewsPod, is an occasional presenter of Newsnight, the stand-in presenter for Any Questions replacing the late Nick Clarke, and was the...
for the iPM Programme. The interview was featured on May 24. Three days before the broadcast, the iPM team received a written statement from Coca-Cola’s then Global Director for Stakeholder Relations, Salvatore Gabola, that he would be happy to have a chat on this subject with Simon in the near future. Eddie Mair coined the term Aidpod in his interview with Simon Berry broadcast on 27.12.2008.
This was the start of an ongoing relationship between the ColaLife campaign and TCCC. Since this first contact with TCCC and the first report about ColaLife on the BBC, the campaign has won supporters from all around the world. In 2010, Simon Berry and his wife Jane decided to work full-time for ColaLife to move it from a campaign into an implementation phase.
Virtual advisory board
ColaLife is recruiting high profile members to its Virtual Advisory Board, to lend expertise, credence and contacts. Current members are:- Professor Don Nutbeam, Professor of Public Health and Vice Chancellor, Southampton University.
- Dr Ian Goldman, an African community development specialist, specialising in community-driven development, now working with South Africa's Presidency on improving the effectiveness of government.
- Dr Prashant Yadav, Director of Healthcare Research Initiative at the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
Concept
The ColaLife concept is based on three facts:- You can buy a bottle of Coca-Cola almost anywhere in the world, even in the most remote regions of developing countries.
- In these same places one in five children die before their fifth birthday from preventable causes. Most die from dehydration from diarrhea.
- The child mortality figures have not changed significantly for at least 3 decades which would indicate that current initiatives are not working as well as they should.
ColaLife aims to use Coca-Cola’s and other companies’ distribution channels, which offer deep, local penetration in developing countries, to save lives, particularly children’s, to improve supply chains for health products, especially for the so-called Last Mile
Last mile
The "last mile" or "last kilometer" is the final leg of delivering connectivity from a communications provider to a customer. The phrase is therefore often used by the telecommunications and cable television industries. The actual distance of this leg may be considerably more than a mile,...
.
The AidPod concept proposes filling unused space between crated bottles, to carry social products such as oral rehydration salts, vitamin A, water purification tablets and other locally determined items to remote areas. An AidPod is a wedge-shaped container that fits inside the unused space between the necks of the bottles in a crate of Coca-Cola.
To be sustainable, ColaLife proposes models where local micro-enterprise
Micro-enterprise
A micro-enterprise is a type of small business, often registered, having five or fewer employees and requiring seed capital of not more than $35,000. The term is often used in Australia to refer to a business with a single owner-operator, and having up to 20 employees...
s, which make money out of collecting, distributing and selling crates of Coca-Cola, can also make money by delivering Aidpods. In practice, an SMS-based system could be implemented to:
- Confirm delivery
- Trigger micro-payments to the person who confirms delivery and to the person who delivered the AidPod
Awards and funding
| Year | Description | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | The New Statesman New Statesman New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s.... ’s New Media Awards |
nominated |
| 2010 | Buckminster Fuller Challenge Buckminster Fuller Challenge The Buckminster Fuller Challenge is an annual international design competition that awards $100,000 to the most comprehensive solution to a pressing global problem. The Challenge was launched in 2007 and is a program of The Buckminster Fuller Institute... |
one of 30 semi-finalists and selected for the Ideas Bank |
| 2010 | UnLtd UnLtd UnLtd - The Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs is a charitable organisation in the United Kingdom set up by seven organisations that promote Social entrepreneurship... Award for Social Entrepreneurs |
Awarded £15,000 towards living expenses to work full-time to move ColaLife to the implementation phase |
External links
- ColaLife website
- ColaLife blog
- ColaLife - Facebook page
- ColaLife - Flickr
- ColaLife TV on YouTube
- Latest ColaLife Progress Report
- Brandeins Article March 2010 Only in German.
- Can Coca-Cola Save Children's Lives asks Simon Berry. By Kate Andrews. InhabitatInhabitatInhabitat is a weblog devoted to the future of design, tracking the innovations in technology, practices and materials that are pushing architecture and home design towards a smarter and more sustainable future...
, 2008. - Facebook, Coca-Cola and Medical Aid in Africa By Hesseltje S. van Goor, WorldchangingWorldchangingWorldchanging is an American non-profit online magazine and blog about sustainability and social innovation. At 19/09/2011, it was taken over by Architecture for Humanity....
, 2008. - Can Coke Save Lives? By Christine Lepisto. TreeHuggerTreeHuggerTreeHugger is a prominent sustainability website. It was rated the top sustainability blog of 2007 by Nielsen Netratings,and was included in Time Magazine's 2009 blog index as one of the top twenty-five blogs....
. 2008. - ColaLife: la red social que nacio en Facebook y sensibilizo a Coca-Cola By Matías Infante. El MercurioEl MercurioEl Mercurio is a conservative Chilean newspaper with editions in Valparaíso and Santiago. Its Santiago edition is considered the country's paper-of-record and its Valparaíso edition is the oldest daily in the Spanish language currently in circulation. El Mercurio is owned by El Mercurio S.A.P...
, 2008. - The ColaLife Campaign Collectivelens.com, 2008.
- Medical Aid Via Coke & Facebook by Dan Gould. PSFK.com, 2008.
- Could Coke be a live saver in the Third World? By Chris Arnold. BrandRepublic.com, 2008.
- 'Maverick 101 By E.B. Boyd, Common Ground Magazine, 2008.