ColaLife: Making A Difference With Coca Cola

‘One of the boxes we wanted to tick was to raise awareness,’ ColaLife founder Simon Berry
colalife.org

ColaLife attempts to ride that wave but for an altogether worthier reason.  The idea This Idea first came to Simon Berry on a trip to Zambia in 1988, where an average of one in five children died before the age of five – largely due to dehydration from diarrhoea –  but where one could buy a Coke anywhere. Twenty years later, and with no perceptible increase in life expectancy – a fact given visual punch with a number of children’s faces blotted out of a photomontage – Berry decided to take action and started a Facebook campaign. Its rapid growth piqued the BBC’s interest, and subsequently, that of Coca Cola. ‘Chances of survival in rural areas of these countries differ unacceptably from what you could expect in the USA or Europe,’ says Berry. ‘We want to change that.’



The idea is simple: to piggy-back on the soft-drinks giant’s dense distribution network in order to deliver potentially life-saving products to those who need them, particularly mothers in remote areas. An AidPod – containing oral rehydration salts, zinc tablets and an innovative plastic container with which to sterilise water using a combination of heat and UV rays from sunlight – would tuck in between rows of bottles in Coca Cola crates and be on sale, subsidised from the top of the chain and for profit at every level, just like malaria drugs. The results should include reduced infant mortality rates by means of greater awareness of preventative measures. MP for Bracknell Dr Philip Lee, a member of ColaLife’s advisory board, mentions that hallowed ‘s’ word when asked his opinion on what makes this project so special. 

‘The key is sustainability,’ he says. ‘It’s not one of those aid ideas where you’ll do it for a few years, go back and find the same problems still in place.’

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