Written by Alex Farley (BA '13, Recreation and Business), Alumni Relations Programs Assistant
As
the
new
Programs
Assistant
on
the
Alumni
Relations
team,
and
a
recent
graduate
from
UW,
I
am
filled
with
pride
when
I
hear
about
the
great
ideas
that
are
changing
the
world
involving
our
Alumni…not
that
I'm
biased
or
anything.
Last
night,
we
held
an
event
in
Ottawa
where
we
offered
an
exclusive
screening
of
the
new
documentary
"The
Cola
Road,"
featuring
the
work
of
a
fellow
AHS
Alumnus
Rohit
Ramchandani
(BSc
'04).
He
is
Founder
&
Executive
Director
at
Antara
Global
Health
Awareness,
and
the
Public
Health
Advisor
&
Principal
Investigator
for
the
Cola
Life.
Rohit
has
been
a
key
player
in
advocating
for
the
powerful
idea
of
making
the
packaging
of
important
medications
fit
between
the
Coca-Cola
cases,
and
from
there
ensuring
they
reach
some
of
the
most
remote
areas
of
the
world.
They
call
these
the
Kit
Yamoy,
which
translates
into
"Life-giving
Kit".
Colalife's
mission:
providing
access
to
things
such
as
oral
rehydration
salts
and
Zinc,
which
are
used
to
help
with
common
illnesses
in
children
like
dehydration
from
diarrhea.
"It's
not
often
that
something
with
the
word
diarrhea
in
it
gets
this
much
attention"
says
Rohit,
as
he
address
the
crowd
of
almost
400
alumni,
students
and
guests
at
The
Canadian
Museum
of
Civilization.
Any
time
I
hear
about
ideas
like
this
I
always
think
to
myself
"how
did
they
come
up
with
that?!"
So
naturally,
I
was
excited
to
be
apart
of
the
event
in
Ottawa,
and
to
learn
about
the
impact
Colalife's
work
was
making.
Although
this
was
not
the
first
time
Rohit
and
Claire
Ward,
the
documentary's
Directors,
have
worked
with
us
to
do
a
screening,
we
never
grow
tired
of
watching
this
story
unfold
on
screen.
The
simplicity
and
brilliance
of
it
is
nothing
short
of
amazing,
and
easily
inspirational
to
all
that
were
in
the
room.
And
I
must
admit
that
was
what
I
was
looking
forward
to
the
most.
I
truly
believe
that
to
see
an
act
of
good
will
encourage
others
to
create
their
own
acts
of
good.
As
Rohit
discussed
his
relationship
with
Waterloo,
and
studies
in
public
health
he
said
"The
idea
of
being
able
to
improve
the
health
of
thousands,
or
even
millions
of
people
at
a
time
excited
me."
It's
just
that
simple
and
hard
not
to
feel
excited
too!
I
love
that
the
common
connection
among
all
of
the
guests
at
the
event
was
having
some
type
of
affiliation
with
UW,
and
with
that
one
can
hope
that
a
chain
reaction
(if
you
will)
of
positive
change
can
occur.
As
one
guest
said
during
the
question
and
answer
section,
"What's
next?
That
was
great!"
And
just
think
–
that's
the
mentality
we
are
so
fortunate
to
be
taught
while
studying
at
this
university.
Well,
this
concludes
my
first
alumni
blog
writing
adventure.
I
hope
that
by
reading
this
and
sharing
in
my
experiences,
you
have
felt
inspired.
To
see
what
audience
members
and
guests
were
saying
check
out
our
Storify!