Originally posted on Cape Argus, 31 May 2006 www.capeargus.co.za

Brandon Harris, a home-based caregiver in Delft, will soon be using a wind-up radio to educate his patients and community members about health issues. The community is impoverished and many of his patients do not have access to electricity or radios at home. But with his new radio that just needs to be wound up, Harris will be able to play health programmes to his patients at no cost.

"In the morning, a lot of the community radios have good programmes dealing with health and other issues," he said. "I will also play some music to my patients," he said.

Harris and 59 home-based caregivers, who are part of the Ma Afrika Tikkun community project in Delft, received their wind-up radios yesterday. The radios, which are also powered by a small solar panel, were donated by the Freeplay Foundation, an organisation that distributes wind-up radios across Africa.

Director of the Freeplay Foundation, Kristine Pearson said: "This is the first radio ever created for the humanitarian sector."

The radios were used in Africa so that communities could listen to health-related radio programmes and then discuss what they had learnt, said Pearson.

Health co-ordinator for Ma Afrika Tikkun, Michelle Greybe, said the home-based caregivers played an important role in the Delft community. "They take the burden off the day hospital," she said. Greybe is enthusiastic about the radios because the caregivers can educate the community about HIV/Aids, childhood illness, nutrition, contraception and teenage pregnancy.

Home-based caregiver Rachele Afrikaner said many people in the community were not aware of health issues. "Many of the mothers do not realise how important it is for them to take their children for immunisation. Some pregnant mothers don't even go to the clinics for check-ups," she said. There was also a high rate of teenage pregnancy and early childhood deaths, said Afrikaner.

"This radio will help us to educate the community and save lives."