Transforming access to life saving treatment. By Lynn Smith

Diarrhoea is the second biggest killer of children worldwide, around 500,000 die per year. Even though the efficacy of Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) given with zinc, has long been recognised as a simple solution, 85 percent of diarrhoea cases are not treated with ORS and zinc. The problem, it seems, has been getting the message and the anti-diarrhoea kits out to those who most need them.

In 1986, Simon Berry OBE and his wife Jane were working on the British Aid Programme in north east Zambia. Simon had spent twelve years working on the programme and he and Jane had three children under five years old. They were shocked to learn that, amongst their Zambian peers, one in five would die of simple causes, like diarrhoea, before their fifth birthday, and the couple resolved to do something about it.

Thus, the idea that became ColaLife was conceived. Although Simon Berry tells me, “This was before the internet and we had no phone in NE Zambia. So, it incubated for a while.” Then in 2008, their youngest child left home and Simon and Jane went to Facebook to publish their basic idea: “The co-distribution of medicine with CocaCola, making use of the unused space between the bottles.”

A question posed by Simon - “Why is it that you can get Coca-Cola wherever you go in the world, but you can't get life-saving medicines?” – gave the charity its name.

“The idea,” Simon says, “went viral.” Throughout 2009-10 they approached existing global child health organisations with the objective of them taking on ColaLife’s idea and network but found little interest. Then in June 2010, Simon and Jane gave up their jobs to focus on raising the funds necessary to test out their proposal themselves. In 2011 ColaLife was granted charitable status and, following successful fund-raising, in December 2011 they ceased to be volunteers. In 2019 the World Health Organisation (WHO) added copackaged ORS and zinc to its Essential Medicines List. By the end of 2020, sales of the kit reached 1.36million, which represents nearly 1.36million lives improved, with the Zambian government being the largest customer for the co-pack.

“Building an impact that lasts way beyond our

Now living in Coldwaltham, Simon tells me that he and Jane have carefully built the organisation’s guiding principles, the key one being that they do nothing that requires them to be a permanent part of the solution. The couple’s withdrawal from the organisation has been planned from the outset, so that, “Things will not collapse when we leave.” ColaLife also, “Respects and works with existing local organisations and within local systems, customs and procedures.” And, “Working in partnership, around an agreed mission not around us or a pot of money. This helps the partnership survive without us and deal with blips in funding.” Interestingly, the principles suppress the brand itself, as Simon says, “Our presence is only temporary. Parents in Zambia have never heard of ColaLife.” The Commercial format of the anti-diarrhoea kit is branded as Kit Yamoyo (Kit of Life) and there is a governmentbranded version too.

Established a high-level engagement with the Coca-Cola Company

As the initial idea behind CoalLife was to codistribute a pack containing ORS and Zinc, using the unused space – the spaces between the bottles - in Coca-Cola crates, establishing highlevel engagement with the Coca-Cola Company was imperative. Through this process the organisation learnt how, “Coca-Cola gets their products everywhere. Put simply: they design aspirational products and then market them directly to consumers; they then put their products into the distribution chain at a price that enables everyone involved to make a profit while at the same time ensuring that the product has a retail price that is affordable.”

Simon applied these same principles to an antidiarrhoea kit. “Although our initial focus was on the private sector, the Zambian government took on the product and now distributes it free at health clinics as well.” He also emphasises that, “The Coca-Cola Company’s involvement was during the pre-trial phase and was advisory; they never asked for anything in return, and we did not receive funding from Coca-Cola.”

Extending global reach

After the scale-up in Zambia, Simon says, “We looked at how we might have a global impact and decided this would be best achieved by changing the WHO guidelines for diarrhoea treatment. As always, we worked through other organisations and in partnership to achieve this. Since 2019, in response to our application, the

WHO now recommends that ORS and Zinc are co-packaged for the treatment of diarrhoea in children. In 2021 we co-founded the ORS and Zinc Co-pack Alliance (ORSZCA) to accelerate the uptake of this new recommendation by national governments.”

A husband-and-wife team

Simon tells me that for the trial and scale-up in Zambia, ColaLife received ‘project funding,’ i e funding directed to a specific project but that the organisation now benefits from ‘Strategic funding,’ which allows funds to be used in a way that the organisation feels most useful – within agreed parameters. “This Strategic funding,” granted from the private, Isenberg Family Charitable Trust, “Has,” Simon says, “been absolutely crucial to our success.”

In terms of staffing, the charity is just Simon and Jane. “There are no additional staff and never have been.” Although ColaLife does use volunteers, who, in the past, have helped with product design, graphic design and data visualisation.

“Currently,” Simon says, “we are looking for a data analyst to help us with two more papers aimed at the academic press.” In terms of governance the organisation has a volunteer board that currently has five members.

Thousands of people have contributed to ColaLife

In recognition of his work, Simon was awarded an OBE in the 2023 new Year’s Honours List for Services to Global Child Health. However, when I congratulate him on his achievement, Simon is keen emphasis that ColalIfe’s impact is not just down to one man.

“ColaLife has won many awards over the years including ‘Product Design of the Year’ in 2013 and the ‘GSK / Save the Children Healthcare Innovation Award’ in 2015. These help enormously with profile and credibility. The 2015 award came with £300,000 which enabled us to leverage the additional funding we needed for the scale-up in Zambia.

“Awards bestowed on me personally I am hugely grateful for but are a bit more problematic. Thousands of people have contributed to the impact that ColaLife has had, it’s not just been down to me.” Amongst those contributors is Jane Berry, who Simon says, should have a fifty percent share in his OBE.

A charity that has achieved what it set out to achieve …

ColaLife has faced many challenges over the years, “But nothing that we’ve not been able to overcome.” Simon acknowledges that funding is always an issue with charities but that ColaLife has mitigated this by keeping small, agile and sharply focused on a single issue. Plus it has never had premises to maintain. At the end of this year ColaLife will close down gracefully having achieved what it set out to achieve (and a lot more).”

Contacts: Colalife, c/o 111-117 Lancaster Rd, Notting Hill, London W11 1QT. Please email: act@colalife.org www.colalife.org