How We Work
Access to education and information is a key impediment to millions of Africans who strive every day to better their lives. Our aim is provide education and information to “last mile” learners anytime, anywhere. We achieve this by working with a variety of partners.
We work with government ministries, large aid organisations, UN agencies, in-country NGOs, communities, radio stations, individuals and corporations working across a range of sectors. These include education, health, agriculture, environment, peacemaking and emergency response. We build coalitions that bring the groups together for an effective and efficient use of resources. When communication is a central component of development success, Lifeline Energy can ensures that information is reliably delivered to those who need it. We consider communication to be a central form of aid, just like shelter, food and medicine.
Training
From our experience, the biggest error that NGOs make when distributing radios or media players is that they don’t set aside enough time for training. Our products are designed for groups, have unique features that people might not be familiar with and solar charging may not be well understood by everyone. We also help with training materials.
Over the years we’ve worked with local partners to develop and refine a system to distribute radios and media players for projects of any size. We openly share this methodology and train partner staff (as trainers), as well as community members directly.
Our approach is holistic. We strongly believe that radios and MP3 players should never be “just given away” or handed out. Community involvement is key to ensuring that a product’s potential is maximised. All recipients sign an agreement, which is also read aloud, that outlines their role and responsibilities on behalf of a classroom or group. Guardians are often teachers, local leaders, nurses or child heads of households. We advocate that guardians be female whenever possible.
What Our Team Can Do
- Survey and assess information and energy needs of identified populations
- Assess, determine and implement distribution criteria for product recipients
- Manage logistics, plan and implement distributions in collaboration with local partners
- Create radio listening groups and train local users on group formation and facilitation skills, to maximise radio listening with discussion and debate
- Monitor projects and evaluate their impact
If you’d like more information on how we work, please contact us directly on partnerships@lifelineenergy.org