South Sudan 2019 – A Visit With Dignity
It’s a place incompatible with human dignity. Some of the worst living conditions I’ve ever seen were in a crowded internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Juba, South Sudan. The residents...
Try not to sprain your ankle in Ethiopia – Highlights of 20 years working in Africa
A few years ago while photographing Speckled Mousebirds of my hotel in Addis Ababa, I fell and sprained my ankle. No doubt aided by the altitude, it was swollen and sore, but I didn’t think it...
My Best Tips and Ideas for Work Travel 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”
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
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 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?
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
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 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 25 Years On?
By Kristine Pearson 1994 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...
Charcoal Children: Danger in Lusaka’s Compounds
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
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
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
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.”
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 . – October 2011 This is a “blong” – a long blogLike many girls...
A Teacher who Provides more than Just an Education
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
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
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
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...
