Clarice Odhiambo has a vision: To dance with the “old and frail people, especially women in Africa,” as they celebrate their escape from the poverty stricken lifestyles “that they had known all along until I came into their lives.”
As Africa Water Partnership Manager for the Coca-Cola Company, Odhiambo, based in her native Kenya, works to realize that vision every day. Each year, an estimated 3 to 5 billion episodes of diarrhea-related diseases in developing countries kill more than 2 million people, more than 90 percent of them of children. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), some 88 percent of the sickness is due to bad water, sanitation, and hygiene.
Coca-Cola, along with several partners, including CARE, UNICEF, Proctor & Gamble, and other non-profits and corporations, created the Global Water Challenge (GWC) in 2005 to “deliver clean water, sanitation, and hygiene education projects…share best practices, and raise global visibility and support” for the issue, according to globalwaterchallenge.org.
Odhiambo, who has been with Coke since 1997, oversees the beverage giant’s clean water projects in 56 countries in Africa. Before taking her current role in January 2006, she was the supply chain improvement manager for South Central Africa, which includes Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi. But, she says, after visiting the clean water projects and observing how they transformed poor and unhealthy communities into healthy ones, “it started dawning on me that there is more to life than just working and earning a paycheck,” Odhiambo says. “Everyone has an opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life, and this may be my calling.”
The GWC, part of Coke’s Community Water Partnership, launched its pilot project in Kenya in February 2005. The project has two components:
• Water for Schools: Provides small blue bottles of locally produced sodium hypochlorite solution to clean contaminated water; trains and employs local women to create clay storage containers with narrow mouths and spigots—no more large bowls that villagers dipped dirty hands in for a drink; and educates school children—who then teach their families—about better hygiene practices, including washing hands after visiting the toilet.
• Water, Sanitation, and Sustainable Agriculture: Builds wells of treated, protected water in the communities so residents—usually women and girls—do not have to travel miles and hours to reach often dirty water sources.
Overseeing this and other clean water projects for Coke has been eye-opening, says Odhiambo, a wife, mother, and chemical engineer who has studied in both the U.S. and Nairobi. “There are so many things that we take for granted in life, especially when it is something that you never have to think about, like having clean, safe water to drink because it is always coming out of the faucet,” she explains. “That you can do something so simple with so little, and yet have a life-saving impact on someone, is astonishing and is a lesson that I will always treasure.”
Odhiambo, a graduate of the University of Nairobi with a master’s degree from the University of Rhode Island, has had a varied career. Before joining Coke in 1997 as a senior engineer, she worked with East Africa Industries Ltd., a subsidiary of Unilever and was a research scientist for Betz Paperchem Inc., in Florida. She holds two patents from formulas she invented during her tenure there.
“It was my dream to come back to Africa and continue the same innovation, only this time around, impacting and making a difference to my fellow Africans,” Odhiambo says. “This continues to be my personal goal, to use my engineering and knowledge to design appropriate solutions for the rural women and children of Africa.”
Odhiambo frequently visits the water projects, most of which are in rural parts of the countries. “Because of the poor infrastructure,” she explains, “it may take extra days to travel by road just to get to the sites.”
Once she gets there, though, the communities go all out—singing and dancing to show their appreciation. This makes the travel and grueling hours worth it, Odhiambo adds. “When you see the joy and smiles on the people’s faces, then you know that you want to soldier on.”
