My friend Simon Berry is onto something. After listening to Annie Lennox on Desert Island Disc he blogged this:
By some miracle my PC and Radio Shark did record last Sunday’s
(11/5/08) Desert Island Discs. Unfortunately it’s a very poor recording
but this is what Annie Lennox said.Just to put it into context, after talking about her passion for
AIDS campaigns in South Africa and the fact that she’s set up her own
campaign ‘Sing’. She then talked about that fact that she would have
shared, with her father, the sense of injustice in the World. Then she
said:
We can distribute Coca Cola all around the
World but we can’t seem to get medication to save a child from
something as simple as diarrhoea and I think that that is wrong. You
know, you have a choice you either get involved with an issue or you
walk away from it. I think it’s a human rights issue and I feel very
passionately about human rights.
Simon is a very practical man. Now he’s asking Coca-Cola to “use their distribution channels (which are amazing in
developing countries) to distribute rehydration salts. Maybe by
dedicating one compartment in every 10 crates as ‘the life saving’
compartment?”
If you think that makes sense you can lend weight to the argument by joining this facebook group.
[...] The full story is explained in Nick’s post, but the basic idea is to encourage Coca-Cola to create a “life-saving compartment” in each of the deliveries it makes in the developing world to distribute medical aid along with the popular brown fizzy pop. [...]
I have finally found a reason to join facebook. This is an excellent idea.
Hi,
this is a great CSR idea! I am doing research on how blogs will / are an ever more important part of business and society. I think this idea and blogpost is a double hit – showing both how blogs have an impact and how ideas can spur and be spread. Keep on with the great work and make this one happen!
Best / Anders (Stockholm, Sweden)
[...] Remember this post earlier this week encouraging you lot to join Simon Berry in his campaign to get Coca Cola to start using it’s distribution network to save lives by transporting re-hydration tablets to remote areas of Africa. One in Five children in Africa die before they are 5 because of diarrheoa. Simon tweeted that the BBC is interested in his idea and this is what the iPM blog makes of what he is doing: Simon Berry and others on the blog have been keen for iPM to to hear more about his big idea. For more than ten years, Simon worked all over the world as part of the British aid effort. He thinks there is a simple way to help the one in five children in Africa who die from simple causes – usually diarrhoea. And the answer is Coca-Cola. Not the product – but its distribution network. We’ve asked Coca-Cola to debate, but in the meantime Eddie has been speaking to Simon about him and his idea. Listen to Simon’s interview here. [...]
Thanks for this Nick and the comments of others are great too.
This story was supposed to happen . . . I blogged the idea _before_ Annie’s comments which I heard while driving the car. I couldn’t believe it – I had to pull over and call my wife! This coincidence was what spurred me on and led to the establishment of the Facebook group. Which I am now a bit worried about . . . . it’s not growing as fast as it should! Tell all your friends and tell mthem to tell their’s.
Anyway the full story is here (see link below) including an interview done today with Eddie Mair of BBC Radio 4′s PM programme. an edited version will go out on PM programme on Saturday.
http://beamends.typepad.com/simons_blog/coca_cola_campaign/index.html
Simon
[...] Anyone who has read this post or this one will know about my friend Simon who is trying to persuade Coca-Cola to use it’s distribution system to help re-hydration tablets reach children in Africa. Poor sanitation causes diarrheoa, which causes dehydration, which kills children. iPM on Radio 4 has picked up on the idea and with some of their rootling Simon now has had a response from Coca Cola: This is just in…from Salvatore Gabola, Global Director Stakeholder Relations at Coca-Cola. I’ll be taking him up on his offer of a chat. We will get there a step at a time.“This is an extraordinarily interesting discussion. And it is one which goes to the heart of the key question of how we can make better use of the successes of business to serve the development needs of the world in general and of Africa in particular….. Salvatore has already been looking for ways to make distribution less damaging. To support Simon in his ongoing conversation the m ore of us who sign up to say we like this simple idea the better. Click here to join the facebook group. Think of it as a project in journalism for good and you playing your part in the 5w’s and an H. [...]