Kristine Pearson, Author at Lifeline Energy

Try not to sprain your ankle in Ethiopia – Highlights of 20 years working in Africa

by Kristine Pearson | Mar 13, 2019 | Africa, African progress, By Kristine Pearson, Working in Africa

By Kristine Pearson A few years ago while photographing Speckled Mousebirds in the bushes of my hotel in Addis Ababa, I fell and sprained my ankle. No doubt aided by the altitude, it was swollen...

Our Best Tips and Ideas for Work Travel in Africa

by Kristine Pearson | Jan 25, 2019 | Africa, By Kristine Pearson, Working in Africa

Even experienced globetrotters can learn new tips for travelling in Africa. Our well-travelled CEO and founder, Kristine Pearson offers up her advice. One of the Lifeline team thought that it would...

Teachers Can Now Have a “Second Voice”

by Kristine Pearson | Aug 18, 2018 | By Kristine Pearson, Education, Kenya, Lifeplayer MP3, Power of radio, Radio school, Refugees, Tom Hanks Day

Kristine Pearson (Lifeline Energy) and Kevin Turk (International Tom Hanks Day) visited Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya in July 2018. A Primary School in Kakuma Refugee Camp It’s one thing to hear about...

Leaving Their Past Behind – My Work With Refugees

by Kristine Pearson | Jun 20, 2018 | By Kristine Pearson, Children, Education, Lifeplayer MP3, Power of radio, Refugees

Education provides a way to help to rebuild a refugee child’s life through normalising social interaction and gaining knowledge and skills. We believe our Lifeplayers have an important role to play in providing education and information when it’s needed most.

Speak Up in South Sudan – AET’s Case for Lifeplayers

by Kristine Pearson | Oct 6, 2017 | African progress, Children, Education, Partner blog, Power of radio, Radio school

By Jonathan Coxall Africa Educational Trust (AET) is partnering with Lifeline Energy to deliver Speak Up, a radio-based English language course for youth and adults in 130 rural communities in South...

Water is Life. But What Kind of Life?

by Kristine Pearson | Jun 14, 2017 | By Kristine Pearson, Energy poverty, Justice, Kenya

You know the picture I’m talking about. You might have seen it in National Geographic. That one with the African woman serenely carrying a bucket of water on her head. Colourfully dressed; perfectly...

Courage and Conviction Should Not be Border Controlled

by Kristine Pearson | Mar 14, 2017 | By Kristine Pearson, Justice, Kenya

Fatu is afraid to come to America. It’s almost too hard to believe, knowing what I know of her life. She’s stood her ground in the face of young weapon-carrying warriors in Kenya. She has been...

A Cow Doesn’t Give Me Information: How Radio Played a Role for Children in Post-Genocide Rwanda

by Kristine Pearson | Oct 4, 2016 | By Kristine Pearson, Children, Power of radio, Rwanda

By Kristine PearsonWhen asked if he had to choose between his wind-up radio or his cow, he didn’t hesitate. Fordward, an 18-year-old Rwandan head of household said, “I shall choose my radio,...

Who Would Have Imagined Rwanda 22 Years On?

by Kristine Pearson | May 10, 2016 | African progress, By Kristine Pearson, Justice, Rwanda

During April and May 1994 world headlines fixated on one event – the culmination of the long march to democracy in South Africa and the inauguration of Nelson Mandela on 10 May. As Western media...

Charcoal Children: Danger in Lusaka’s Compounds

by Kristine Pearson | Dec 6, 2015 | By Kristine Pearson, Children, Energy poverty, Justice, Zambia

When I returned to my Lusaka hotel room I looked like I had been dipped in charcoal dust. Although it was an inconvenience, the grime could be scrubbed off. But what I found hard to ‘wash-off’ was...

An Unlikely Friendship: Remembering Feroza Adam – Activist and Treasured Friend

by Kristine Pearson | Aug 8, 2015 | By Kristine Pearson, Friendship, Gender, South Africa

Kristine Pearson shares a deeply personal story of her friendship with South African women’s leader and ANC activist, Feroza Adam

When Tuaregs Exchanged Guns for Radios

by Kristine Pearson | Apr 11, 2015 | By Kristine Pearson, Friendship, Gender, Power of radio

In January, extremist Tuareg rebels launched a rebellion in Northern Mali taking advantage of a coup in the capital of Bamako. Since then the rebels have declared independence for a region they call...

Shooting to Score, Not to Kill: International Woman’s Day Tribute

by Kristine Pearson | Mar 8, 2015 | By Kristine Pearson, Friendship, Gender, Justice, Kenya

In Kenya’s remote Marsabit district near the Ethiopia border, girls face female genital mutilation (FGM), early or forced marriage, and lack access to education and health services. A sparsely...

“I May be Blind, But this Radio Allows me to See Again.”

by Kristine Pearson | Feb 12, 2015 | By Kristine Pearson, Energy poverty, Gender, Kenya, Power of radio

Our First Meeting, Her First Radio I first met Senkeiyan two days after the attack at Nairobi’s Westgate Mall. We were in the Great Rift Valley distributing Prime radios to rural classrooms....

Kerosene – A Burning Issue in Women’s Rights, Human Rights

by Kristine Pearson | Oct 2, 2014 | By Kristine Pearson, Energy poverty, Gender, Health, Justice, Kenya

By Kristine Pearson . – October 2011 This is a “blong” – a long blogLike many girls...

A Teacher who Provides more than Just an Education

by Kristine Pearson | Mar 4, 2014 | By Kristine Pearson, Children, Education, Lifeplayer MP3, Radio school, Zambia

The second teacher we’re profiling in our #teachertuesday series is our old friend, Mwenya Mvula. In 2001, Mr Mvula served as a volunteer ‘mentor’ in Zambia’s Learning at Taonga Market primary radio...

The Joy of Watching Radio Learners – For the First Time

by Kristine Pearson | Feb 20, 2014 | Education, Lifeplayer MP3, Radio school, Zambia

Eighty-four Grade 1 students in blue and white uniforms, sat scrunched close together on hard wooden bench-desks at New Mandevu school in Lusaka. Given the large number of children attending the...

Meeting Wives of a Sultan: a Story for International Women’s Day

by Kristine Pearson | Jan 7, 2014 | By Kristine Pearson, Gender, Power of radio

For International Women’s Day, I am sharing a story I wrote in 2002 about six extraordinary women that I had the honour of meeting in the once great Saharan trading city of Agadez. I met them where...

In Kenya the Power of Information Depends on – Power

by Kristine Pearson | Sep 28, 2013 | By Kristine Pearson, Energy poverty, Kenya, Power of radio

Over the weekend I glanced at Twitter on my iPhone. I then switched over to Facebook and saw the same story. I quickly flipped on the TV, where I sat transfixed at the horrific events unfolding at...

From Nyamata to New York

by Kristine Pearson | Jul 22, 2013 | By Kristine Pearson, Energy poverty, Rwanda

In 2006, Tech Museum of Innovation Award Laureates were invited to the opening of the Nasdaq Stock Exchange in New York City. Just by chance I happened to be in town. Afterwards the group...