Leading Water tanks manufacturer Roto Tanks and Africa’s largest marketing and communications network agency, Ogilvy Africa (as part of the Ogilvy Give Program) have partnered in a project aimed at educating young mothers in rural parts of East Africa on how to combat malnutrition in children in the first 24 months of their development.
The project dubbed ‘Lesso Lessons’ aims to use traditionally patterned fabric garments (called ‘lessos’) to educate young Kenyan mothers in rural areas on proper postnatal nutritional care.
It is important to note that lessos are commonly used as slings by these women to carry their babies on their backs as they work. Traditionally, the lessos are usually adorned with words of hope and love. They are often passed down to convey tribal stories and wisdom over many generations.
Lesso Lessons is an initiative that makes use of creative and design thinking to tackle this seemingly ever-present issue in a way that seamlessly fits into Kenyan women’s lives. Along with input from healthcare professionals, the team adapted over 1 million data points from some of the most recent studies on postnatal nutrition during the design process to make the utility relevant to our region.
Speaking of the design and concept, Yash Deb – Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy Africa said, “While staying true to the traditional beauty of a lesso, we turned the postnatal nutritional textbook into a desirable and functional garment that will hopefully continue teaching for generations to come.”
As the first 24 months are the most pivotal in a child’s nutrition and development, the team created 3 different Lesso Lessons; each one tackling one of three key development periods (0-6 months, 6-12 months and 12-24 months).
The World Food Programme (WFP) has identified malnutrition as the number one cause of death in children under five. In Kenya, over 26% of children under 5 years of age, that’s 1 in 4 children, face malnutrition issues, resulting in long-term developmental problems, as well as stunted physical growth and immunity problems. This has been attributed to young mothers not knowing proper breastfeeding and complimentary feeding practices.
While East and Sub-Saharan Africa has made impressive health and safety strides in recent years, there are still basic and systemic issues that public service announcements via traditional media simply cannot address.
Roto Tanks, with their vast, deep-reaching logistics and delivery capabilities have teamed up with Ogilvy Africa to help distribute a specially designed lesso that offers young mothers nutritional information and guidance that could have a lasting impact on the health and development of their child.
Heril Bangera – President, Roto Tanks; said, “More and more, we’re starting to see how the adage of it taking ‘a village to raise a child’ is becoming more and more poignant. This initiative shows that a simple effort from a wide group, could have an effect for many generations to come.”
Through the Lesso Lessons project, the two organizations aim to distribute over 1 million lessos in parts of Central, Eastern, North Eastern, Rift Valley, Coast, Western, Nyanza and Nairobi regions.
Vikas Mehta –CEO, Ogilvy Africa sums it up, “Lesso Lessons uses tradition as a means to bring about positive change. It’s an attempt to weave nutritional guidance into a Lesso, which is already woven into the cultural fabric of our societies in Africa. We are delighted to partner with Roto in bringing this to life in Kenya, and hope to see this initiative benefit more countries in the future”
About Roto Tanks
Roto Tanks was established in Kenya in 1991, and has since become a leader in the field of rotational moulding in East Africa. With factories in over 7 countries across the continent, it has grown to become a recognized leader in the design and manufacturing of plastic bulk storage, processing and transportation tank system. Its factory and sales office is located in Nairobi, Industrial Area near the Jomo Kenyatta Foundation.
It has the largest range of water tanks in East Africa, manufacturing cylindrical water storage tanks, rectangular loft tanks, ball-shaped underground tanks and septic tanks. It also manufacture a large range of industrial products like crates, trays, boxes, pit slabs, dustbins and products individually custom-made to fit client needs.
It boasts of qualified and customer friendly team, large fleet of vehicles and wider selection of stockists throughout the country who aim to deliver excellent service to each and every customer.
For more information, contact us on (020) 807 0603 or via email on enquiries@rotomoulders.com
About Ogilvy Africa
Ogilvy Africa is the largest network agency on the continent catering to 40 countries with a team of ~900 people across Central, East and West Africa. Headquartered in Nairobi – Kenya, Ogilvy Africa manages a portfolio of over 100 brands for clients such as AB InBev, Airtel, Africa CDC, Coca-Cola, Diageo, Distell, Equity Bank, Exxon Mobil, Kenya Airways, Mondelez, NCBA, Nestle, Philips, PWC, SAB Miller, Sanlam, Total, UNICEF, Unilever, and WWF amongst others.
Ogilvy has a distinctive positioning and proposition that is key for current times, when clients desire a partner to help them realize their growth ambitions or to get back to growth. Simply put our ambition is to be, “The Best Platform and Partner for Growth on the Planet.”
This proposition is anchored on true shared value, what our world needs now, creating human(societal) value; employee value and commercial value. This proposition cuts across our key mega-businesses ABC (Advertising, Branding and Content), Experience (including CRM and e-commerce), PR & Influence and Media (focussed on performance marketing).
In addition, we’ve created proprietary marketing products in areas such as real-time marketing, social intelligence, performance marketing, e-commerce enablement and content hubs. Our unique operating model, One Ogilvy, allows clients and brands to cut the complexity of agency structures and create seamless omni-channel experiences for their consumers, across touchpoints. Fuelled by the holy trinity of content, data, and technology; Ogilvy Africa strives to be the best-practice agency model, for Developing & Emerging markets.
In our 20+ years in Africa, we have won the highest number of regional and global awards for the region including Cannes Lions, Clio awards, Dubai Lynx Festival, SABRE Awards (Global and Africa), WARC Effectiveness; to name a few.
Ogilvy is a leading global network of WPP. Launched by David Ogilvy over 70 years ago, it is referred-to as the Agency of Giants, by several industry experts. 2021 WARC rankings named Ogilvy, the #1 creative network in the world.