The Dream Factory presents ColaLife
May 17 by Amplify
Cultural insight
In his 12 years as a development worker in some of the world's poorest countries, Simon Berry has found himself in a fair number of out-of-the-way places. On the road for weeks at a time while visiting local communities across Zambia, his life was far removed from the nine-to-five humdrum most of us take for granted. "It was really remote," Berry recalls. "I've never worked in places as remote as those." There was, however, one constant he knew he could rely on. "No matter where you pitched up, you could always get a Coca-Cola." And that started him thinking.
Through his job, Berry saw first hand the human effects of poverty. One statistic shocked him above all others: that in the most impoverished communities, one in five children died before the age of five from preventable diseases like diarrhoea. The treatment - sachets containing little more than salt and sugar - were cheap and effective, but the shelves of health centres lay empty. Aid agencies and NGOs simply didn't have the capacity to distribute the drugs. And so, by the dusty Zambian roadside, it dawned on him. Sachets of rehydration salts aren't large or heavy - if only they could hitch a ride with the soft drink deliveries. Then, Berry realised, the networks that made Coke the world's most successful beverage could be used to bring life-saving medicines to those who really needed them.
The ColaLife concept may be off the ground, but there's still lots to do to get it into everyday use. Seeing real potential, Berry is soon to give up full-time work and divert all his energies to the project. He wants to get more people involved by recruiting a team of interns. And, this summer, he plans to head back to Africa on a fact-finding mission which will see him talking to everyone from health organisations to workers in Coke factories and distributors.
But with nods of approval from Coca-Cola's top brass, he remains optimistic. And the real driving force is people. The phrase ‘one in five by the age of five' underpins everything he does. They're numbers Berry wants to see changed.
