History

The Beginning

In 1999, Lifeline Energy (formerly known as the Freeplay Foundation) began intensive work in remote areas of Africa to put wind-up and solar-powered radios into the hands of people who needed them most. After local organisations expressed a pressing need for wind-up and solar-powered radios, Lifeline Energy fostered partnerships among global multilateral and bilateral agencies and national governments to help realise this goal.

During the first two years, Lifeline Energy’s CEO Kristine Pearson travelled across sub-Saharan Africa, ultimately implementing radio projects for orphans in Rwanda. After recognising what a positive difference having a radio made, she envisioned an entirely new self-powering radio that was easy to use and created to withstand unskilled users and Africa’s harsh conditions.

She came up with the idea for the Lifeline radio - so named because many orphaned children told Kristine that their radios made them feel safe at night. Children said that the voices they trusted most were the voices on the radio and she saw how this gave them a ‘lifeline’ to the outside world.

Working through local partners, Kristine met with groups of orphaned children in Rwanda, South Africa and Kenya, where she learned what was important and needed by children in a radio. Girls said that since many of them are farmers, they wanted a radio shaped like a handbag so they could carry it into the fields. It needed to be robust and long lasting.

Children wanted a radio that would wind in either direction so it wouldn’t break. Most rural communities have no access to electricity, and cannot afford to purchase battery on an on-going basis, thus having a reliable winding mechanism and a solar panel was essential.

The Lifeline radio and Prime are born

In 2001, the Lifeline radio concept won the first Tech Museum of Innovation Award for Technology Benefiting Humanity, in the education category. Using the USD$50,000 grant underwritten by NASDAQ, Lifeline Energy financed the research and development of the Lifeline radio.

Soon after, Kristine returned to Rwanda with a working prototype for further focus group testing with adolescents. The radio received high praise from the children and young adults alike.

In April 2003, exactly two years after Kristine wrote the concept paper for the Lifeline idea, 18-year-old Devotte Hafashimana became the world’s first Lifeline radio recipient. A shy Burundian living in the Nduta refugee camp in Tanzania, Devotte was one of 500 young listening group leaders who received Lifelines as part of a Voice of America (VOA) youth radio project.

Seven years later, more than 215,000 Lifeline radios have been distributed, conservatively benefiting over ten million people in sub-Saharan Africa alone. Lifeline radios have been integrated into dozens of radio communications projects across the continent.

In August 2010, Lifeline Energy launched our next generation of power independent, multi-band radio, known as the Prime. It was designed and developed to provide 24/7 listening access - anytime, anywhere. The Prime features an attractive digital LCD screen, a more powerful solar-panel, a bright light, a powerful rechargeable battery pack and a DC input which can be plugged into either a wall socket or a car battery.

The Prime replaces the Lifeline radio.

Renewable Lighting – Lighting for Life

Millions of children across sub-Saharan Africa study to the weak flames of candles. In South Africa alone, hundreds of children die each year from drinking kerosene. Burns from fires are the second leading cause of accidental death of children under five. Thousands of shacks in densely populated informal settlements each year in South Africa catch fire – destroying lives, homes and precious possessions.

To address the need and demand for off-grid, portable, safe, clean energy sources, Lifeline Energy expanded into renewable lighting. We undertook a series of lighting-needs assessments of vulnerable households, which included child and granny-headed and those where someone was ill.

Conducted in rural and peri-urban areas of South Africa, we wanted to understand what types of fuel-based lighting was used, what it was being used for and how much families spent. With the assessment results, we funded the development of a fit-for-purpose clean energy light, the Lifelight. Like the Prime, the Lifelight is charged by either solar energy or by wind-up technology.

Lifelights use light emitting diodes, more commonly known as LEDs, which are small, bright, highly fuel efficient, last for thousands of hours and are relatively non-toxic compared to fluorescent lighting. The lights can be safely used for studying, grading papers, home-based microenterprises, nighttime sales, night births, other medical emergencies and increased security.

Lifeline Energy today – the Lifeplayer

In September 2010, Lifeline Energy launched a digital MP3-enabled radio - the Lifeplayer. The revolutionary product is power-independent with a wireless solar panel and back-up hand crank. It bridges Internet, cellular, media player and radio technologies to deliver educational programming for the poor.

The Lifeplayer's many features include; AM/FM/SW radio, an MP3 capacity that can be pre-loaded with 64GB of educational content in any subject or language. It also records live radio for capturing individual or group stories, encouraging interaction and with the radio’s outstanding speaker quality, 60 listeners can hear various programmes on support disaster situations, relief efforts, entertainment and on-going development initiatives for hours on-end.

In addition, an optional upgraded solar panel includes a USB output socket, enabling mobile phone charging. This will save many from walking hours to charge their phones.

The tool serves as an ideal medium for instructing groups in English, math, science, financial literacy, business training and other subjects where there is a shortage of skilled teachers. It can be used to provide ongoing education to government and private sector workers, midwives, labourers – anyone, really.

We envisage that the the Lifeplayer will play an important role in developing countries, where millions of people have little access to education and vital information.

Lifeline Energy will launch the Lifeplayer in a project for farmers in Rwanda, in partnership with the multinational giant SC Johnson and a US-based NGO, Radio Lifeline. Replicating and scaling up Lifeline Energy's award-winning Coffee Lifeline project, the new initiative will disseminate modern farming techniques, market information and health news to Rwandan pyrethrum farmers via MP3 podcast and a monthly nationwide FM radio programme.

The Lifeplayer was created and developed by Lifeline Energy and Lifeline Technologies Trading Ltd, its new product development and trading arm.

About Lifeline Technologies Trading Ltd

Lifeline Technologies Trading Ltd. (LTTL) is Lifeline Energy’s partner organisation, which designs, develops, manufactures and sells products to the humanitarian sector. It empowers individuals and communities in the developing world through the development and distribution of appropriate and sustainable products and technologies. Aligned with the UN Millennium Development Goals, LTTL’s focus areas tackle Energy Poverty, Health and Water and Sanitation. Profits generated by LTTL’s commercial activities are donated to us.