#RadioSavesLives: #CommunicationIsAid #Commisaid
Whether due to a natural disaster or conflict or the sudden onset of a disease like COVID19, displaced populations need accurate and trusted information that radio provides. #CommunicationIsAid...
One Lifeplayer and 35 Special Children in Uganda
Angel’s Center in Kampala, Uganda is a small school with an enormous heart. A heart for children with disabilities, ranging from Down’s syndrome and cerebral palsy to hydrocephalus and autism. Last...
When Hope Means a Radio School
When you peer into a Grade 2 classroom, you expect to see little children sitting on tiny chairs at desks built for them. So it was slightly incongruous watching a six-foot 17-year old young man...
Lifeplayer in a Cape Town Township School
Imbasa Primary, a government school, lies at the heart of the high density township of Old Crossroads. It’s just 20 minutes from the skyscrapers of Cape Town’s city centre.
Critical Role of Radio in Ebola Fight
Fatmata is from Sierra Leone and is an Ebola survivor, a widow, and mother of three children. Tragically, two of her children contracted Ebola, and she was accused of bringing the virus to her...
The Lifeplayer Goes Live in Cape Town Township
Crossroads is a sprawling township within view of Cape Town International Airport. The contrast between the two couldn’t be starker. The airport: clean, slick and efficient, rated as one of the top...
How a Little Solar Radio is Helping to Stop Ebola
Normal life ground to a halt for many in the three West African countries affected by Ebola. People were quarantined, or stayed at home. The threat of catching Ebola kept people indoors, and away...
Our Lifeplayer and Sustania: “100 Most Innovative Solutions”
We’re thrilled! Lifeline Energy and our solar and wind-up Lifeplayer MP3 – the world’s first media player, radio and recorder for humanitarian use – appear in this year’s annual...
South Africa’s Newest Teacher is Called the “Blue Lady”
Beeld, one of South Africa’s daily Afrikaans newspapers, recently ran a feature on the introduction of our MP3 Lifeplayers into South African classrooms. The country’s Department of Basic...
Radio: Giving Voice to Democracy
Did its inventors ever imagine the profound role radio would play in spreading news, information and education around the world? Particularly in large parts of Africa, where people have no access to...
Thanks Tom Hanks! Win a Tom Hanks Typewriter and Support Us
Tom Hanks is Lifeline Energy’s ambassador in the United States – and he’s done more than anyone to raise funds for us to continue our work, helping us provide solar radios and...
What World Radio Day means to Tom Hanks Day
Kevin Turk, co-founder of Tom Hanks Day, for World Radio Day, 2013 | Radio means a lot to a lot of different people. To some it is a source of enjoyment; to others it is their means to staying connected with the world.
LIFTing the Lifeplayer MP3 in Zambia
Meet the Educational Broadcasting Services (EBS) team. This dedicated group of women and men are behind the Learning at Taonga Market primary distance education programme in Zambia. We’re...
Not the Picture the Brochure Painted – Mozambique in 1993
In 1993, just a year after the peace accords ended a brutal civil war where a million people were killed and five million were displaced, I took a mini-break in Maputo. I was working in the private sector in Johannesburg back then and couldn’t resist a holiday by the sea.
Starting All Over Again in Zimbabwe
Although they’re located just to the north of us in South Africa, I hadn’t been to Zimbabwe since 2003. Back then I was involved in providing our radios for a local language soap opera drama to help communities learn about health issues…
The Importance of Lighting and Communication
On her last day as as an intern, Rhea Ranjan explains how interning at Lifeline Energy helped her understand how access to information and clean lighting is an important aspect of international development.
The Little Girl who Could
By Uzma Sulaiman It’s one of the cardinal rules when you’re interviewing – detach yourself from the interviewee. Ask questions, take notes, but never get emotionally involved in the story. To put it...
Welcome to Zambia
By Uzma Balkiss Sulaiman en route to Lusaka | “Where does Balkiss come from?”, asks the man at the check-in counter for Ethiopian Airlines at Heathrow. He is, of course, referring to my middle name.
From Writing To A Hands-On Approach
By Stephanie Schmitt, intern at Lifeline Energy. My background is in journalism, mainly old-fashioned print and magazines, and for the last two years I’ve been working online. In my journalism...
Energy Poverty, Kerosene and Lifeline Energy
By Yannick Vuylsteke, intern at Lifeline Energy. I started interning at Lifeline Energy in May, after completing my Masters at SOAS. Having grown up in Africa and as the son of parents working in...