Lifesaving AidPods for 65,000 African children

Meet Judith.  Judith is one of the thousands of small grocery shop-keepers we have trained to sell Kit Yamoyo - the kit of life. That’s it on the counter there, surrounded by eggs. Her shop is in one of Lusaka’s slums, Kanyama West. Judith is one of our best retailers in Zambia's capital, Lusaka. When you ask what makes her successful, she’s very clear:

“Whenever a mother comes into my shop with her child, I tell her about Kit Yamoyo. I talk to her about her child’s health, and the dangers of diarrhoea. I keep a kit that I have opened, here, to show her what is inside and how to measure the clean water and medicine correctly. Then I ask her to buy one now. Why wait until your child has diarrhoea and it is late at night? Take one now, and keep it at home for when diarrhoea strikes.”  One of her customers recently did just that, and was able to treat her baby, Joshua, immediately - before diarrhoea weakened him. Joshua, pictured below, is every Zambian mother's dream. In a country where nearly half of all children are stunted, he's a healthy, stocky little chap who has grown well on exclusive breast-feeding and already looks far older and stronger than many 4 month old children. He wouldn't smile for the camera, but he's a Kit Yamoyo 'poster boy' just the same!

In rural Mumbwa, 140 kilometres out of Lusaka, the delightfully named Comely uses the same strategy: showing and telling every customer who visits his shop about Kit Yamoyo and its benefits. He always has an opened kit ready for demonstrations. Comely also takes advantage of community events and gatherings of women, men or farmers and sometimes goes out to surrounding villages. As a result, he’s one of our best-selling retailers in Mumbwa. He’s created so much demand that often his weekly stock sells out within two days, and he’ll top-up from fellow shop-keepers nearby, who haven’t developed the same selling skills. Across Zambia, our field worker teams and their project managers, Albert and Chibale, pass on these simple secrets of success.

Stopping children dying from diarrhoea isn’t rocket science. Sometimes small steps – just a nudge in the right direction - can bring about a huge change. So, ColaLife is not just working on the frontline in Zambia. We’re feeding many of these small steps into a global strategy for change.

And if you’d like to read more about that, and perhaps help us on our way, your next small step is right here!