How packaging innovation is saving lives in Zambia

Every day, Amcor experts are developing and enhancing packaging to better protect products and make modern life more convenient. They are also helping to solve some of the world’s most complex problems, and develop life-saving solutions.

Through our partnership with UK charity ColaLife, Amcor packaging specialists are helping to get life-saving treatments to children suffering from diarrhoea – an illness that takes a child’s life every minute.

In the last five years, we’ve:

• Created three versions of flexible packaging for Kit Yamoyo, the anti-diarrhoea kit that contains 4g/200ml sachets of Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) and zinc, continually innovating to drive down the cost while still saving lives.
• Donated $10,000 and almost two million flexible packs to ColaLife to help get treatments to more Zambian children.
• Seen the number of children with diarrhoea receiving the recommended treatment increase from less than 1% to more than 40%.

Keep reading to find out the latest update on ColaLife’s mission to bring life-saving medicine to the places that need it most.

2019: AN UPDATE ON COLALIFE’S ACHIEVEMENTS

Last year, Amcor supplied packaging for one million flexi-packs, created at Amcor Flexibles Ledbury based in the UK. As a result, ColaLife saw its concept progress from a dream to an idea, an idea to a prototype, then to pilot tests, upscaling, and now into a mainstream product – Yamoyo – which is produced and distributed by local businesses in Zambia.

This is all thanks to the collaboration of more than 20 organizations spanning government, private sector, and non-profits. One partnership in particular had huge implications for ColaLife’s vision of improved access to ORS and zinc.

A close working relationship with Zambia’s Ministry of Health meant the right channels of communication were open for ColaLife to lobby its application to the World Health Organization (WHO) to get co-packed ORS and zinc on the Essential Medicines List for Children. The application was placed in June 2017, and in September 2018, it was approved.

This is a huge achievement. ColaLife’s next ambition is to have approved its application to the WHO Model Essential Medicines List for Children. If successful, it will change the policy environment globally and make it much easier for other countries to replicate Zambia’s progress.

Kit Yamoyo: Building global awareness

In May 2018, Pharmanova – the local manufacturer in Zambia – took on the role of product marketing. Using its own budget, and with no input from ColaLife, the company transformed the Kit Yamoyo’s Twitter and Facebook pages, and created TV adverts.

And, in 2018, Kit Yamoyo was added to the permanent collection at the UK’s Design Museum.

It’s wonderful to see the legacy of Yamoyo live on. Amcor is proud to have been a part of ColaLife’s journey, and help save lives with revolutionary packaging innovation.

The ColaLife journey up until now:

2008: COLALIFE BEGINS

While working in Africa in the 1980s, ColaLife’s founders Simon and Jane Berry saw that bottles of Coca-Cola could be bought from every village shop, yet one-fifth of children under five were dying from dehydration caused by diarrhoea. Rural health clinics and remote communities simply didn’t have access to the anti-diarrhoeal drugs they desperately needed.

In response, they came up with the Kit Yamoyo – meaning ‘kit of life’. The single-use kits treat unwell children with oral rehydration sachets mixed with water to replace fluids, sugars and salts, and zinc sulphate tablets to reduce the duration and severity of diarrheal episodes.

Simon and Jane knew that effective distribution was key, so they approached Amcor with a request: could we create innovative packaging that would easily integrate into the existing soft-drink supply chain, and also help to measure the water to mix the medicine?

2014: INNOVATION AND EXPERTISE

ColaLife was using an amorphous polyethylene terephthalate (aPET) container that could be packed in the empty space among bottles. Amcor’s flexible packaging team donated their time and resources to develop a breathable, sealable and peel-able film lid for the containers to protect the medicine. The packaging was waterproof, tear-proof and tamper-evident, with pressure release functionality thanks to the application of Amcor P-Plus perforations.

The benefit was immediate: in the first 12 months, 26,000 kits were distributed in two rural areas. The pack won six international awards for health and design innovation, and representatives of several countries expressed interest in replicating the product.

However, the planned distribution approach – kits slotted between soft-drink bottles – wasn’t happening on the ground. Instead, the small retailers running village shops simply tied a bag to their bike to transport the kits to sick children in their communities.

The Amcor team saw an opportunity to redesign the packaging to drive down cost while still achieving the end goal: getting medicine to sick children.

2015: THE PERFECT TIME FOR PRODUCT ITERATION

Amcor’s packaging experts worked with ColaLife to design a second-generation pack that was flexible and used Amcor’s PushPop packaging format. With the same functionality as the lidded aPET container – tamper-proof packaging that doubles as a clean measuring vessel to dose 200ml of water – the new format was 20% of the original cost with five times greater supply chain efficiency.

Retailing at less than US$1, the kit became even more affordable and, in 2015, Amcor donated 870,000 flexi-packs to ColaLife.

Normally, when you see a PushPop on the shelf, it’s expanded to a three-dimensional shape, but we designed the ColaLife version to move along the supply chain in a virtually flat form. The kits are easily collected and transported by people making the journey from regional warehouses and distribution centres to rural villages.

It’s all about using appropriate technology and design for the environment you’re operating in, and together with ColaLife, our packs won the Resource Efficient Pack Award at the UK Packaging Awards in 2015.

2018: PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

The partnership has already achieved impactful outcomes: wherever the kit is available in Zambia, via clinics or shops, the number of children with diarrhoea receiving the recommended treatment has increased from less than 1% to over 40%.

Amcor recently donated $10,000 to ColaLife to help get treatments to more Zambian children. In pilot studies in urban, slum and rural areas, uptake has been very good. Kits are now available in supermarkets in Zambia and are used by the government health service. ColaLife is in discussion with NGOs to roll out the Kit Yamoyo model to other African countries.

Amcor continues to innovate and, in 2018, we’ll launch a new version of the flexible pack. Maintaining the strengths and materials of the PushPop pack, it has been redesigned to remove the top gusset and meet new regulatory requirements.

Being involved in ColaLife’s projects has helped us demonstrate packaging’s potential for social benefit. In 2018, Amcor produced one million packs in the new format which were donated to ColaLife so they can work with manufacturers in Zambia and other African countries in 2018.

AMCOR’S SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP

Amcor boosts the impact we have by leading and participating in global collaborations, including as a core partner in the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative, an active member of the Trash Free Seas Alliance. You can learn more about Amcor’s commitment to sustainability here.