Originally posted on Entertainment Tonight Online, 23 January 2008 www.etonline.com

Tom Hanks is partnering with Lifeline Energy in an eBay charity auction from January 22 to February 1 to help bring resources to children and adults in Africa.

The two-time Academy award winner will autograph 10 self-powered Lifeline radios for the charity auction on eBay's Giving Works charity listing. Each high bidder also will receive a personal letter and a signed photo from the Hollywood star. People can go to www.eBay.com or can click on www.shopvictoriously.com to place their bids and to watch a special video from Tom.

"The Lifeline radio can change the world -- one person, one house, one village at a time," says Tom, who plays a congressman that supplies resources to Afghanistan to defeat the Russians in 'Charlie Wilson's War.' "The beauty of Lifeline Energy is the radio itself and the immediacy of its mission: to put radios in the hands of people who need them. Lifeline radios can make a positive impact from the moment they are turned on in one of the villages."

The first radios ever produced specifically for use in humanitarian projects, Lifeline radios do not require batteries or electricity. Working mainly in Africa, the Lifeline Energy provides radio access to the poorest people in the world via the wind-up and solar-powered radios and enables hundred of thousands of children to learn English, math, science and life skills and how to prevent HIV/AIDS through radio distance-learning programs.