SCALE: Reaching 200,000 in one day - during lunch!
Dabawallahs carry on the good work
When Mumbai office workers opened their lunchboxes on World AIDS Day 2005, they found a variety of HIV/AIDS prevention messages in addition to their meal.
HCP designed and implemented this innovative workplace program together with a lunch delivery practice unique to Mumbai (Bombay) that will ultimately reach about 200,000 offices. The lunches, known as "dabbas," were delivered by about 5,000 "Dabbawalas," who are members of a daily delivery network throughout Mumbai that uses a highly efficient and effective relay system. The Dabbawala system is a century-old practice, perhaps with no parallel in the world. They are featured in top management schools worldwide and Forbes magazine recognized Dabbawala with a Six Sigma quality rating, meaning there is only one error in every six million transactions.
Several weeks after the dabbawallah campaign, Raghunath Megde, the president of the dabbawallahs, visited the HCP India office. He and his work force were keen on continuing to advocate for HIV prevention, care and support as they were concerned about the virus and the unnecessary loss of lives and livelihood of people within and beyond their own community.
He brought with him a presentation they had prepared for a management school where they would be speaking about their six-sigma system. Included in the presentation were slides which demonstrated their experience in the World AIDS Day Dabbawallah campaign 2005 and key messages on HIV/AIDS. The presentation was created by the dabbawallahs with the desire to showcase their work in HIV prevention and to leverage this opportunity for educating hundreds of management students on HIV prevention, care, and support. They have become change agents advocating for HIV prevention by reaching out to the community and people they interact with in myriad ways. Their commitment is inspiring, and today HCP has a long-term Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate with the dabbawallahs entailing 5,000 lunch box carriers in Mumbai city on HIV/AIDS prevention and care.