Read Our Selection of Blogs
Interesting perspectives, unique experiences and keen observations - from our CEO, staff, partners and friends
Tom Hanks Day 2019 Sends Radios to Cyclone Survivors
It started on April Fool’s Day, 16 years ago, with a bunch of students watching Tom Hanks movies on a double decker couch in Kalamazoo. (I know right?!) They enjoyed the day so much, they did it every year after that
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...
Our Best Tips and Ideas for Work Travel in Africa
During my 20 year tenure at Lifeline Energy, I’ve travelled to 31 of Africa’s 54 countries. This has meant sleeping up to a third of any year on a mattress that I didn’t buy. And plenty of nights where that mattress wasn’t exactly a Sealy-Posturepedic. These include a house without windows or doors in the Sahara Desert…
Why Tom Hanks Day Co-founder Continues His Support
I never imagined a point in my life where I would have the ability to travel across the globe and speak with organizations affecting people’s lives at such a profound level. Yet, that’s exactly where I found myself this past July…
Farm Radio International Guest Blog: Farmers and Lifeplayer MP3s
By Steph Stroud, Farm Radio International | At Farm Radio International, we understand the power of radio. We use radio broadcasts to inform, discuss, exchange ideas, investigate and learn.
Teachers Can Now Have a “Second Voice”
It’s one thing to hear about classrooms with 200 students, but it’s another to visit one. While at Kakuma Refugee Camp we spent time in a Grade 3 classroom packed with 200 students. There wasn’t so much as a chair or brick for them to sit on. all of Kakuma’s 24 primary schools are overcrowded.
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 power-independent Lifeplayers have an important role to play in providing education and information when it’s needed most.
Tom Hanks Day 2018 Highlights
The 15th annual International Tom Hanks Day was celebrated on the 07 April by more than 500 revellers. Everything was what it promised to be: loads of fun and fellowship, clips from Tom’s movies, Tom Hanks chants, a Tom Hanks shop, a costume contest, Tom Hanks memorabilia raffle, a band called what else, The Hanksters
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 Sudan.
Why I Keep Giving to Lifeline Energy
If you told me on April Fool’s Day 2004 that a simple joke would result in me traveling to Zambia in Southern Africa, I would have said, “The joke’s on you pal”. But sometimes, life takes you down unexpected paths.
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...
Tom Hanks Day 2018
You won't want to miss it! It's that time of year again everyone! The annual International Tom Hanks Day celebrations kick-off at noon on Saturday 07 April at Chicago's Chop Shop. This is a new...
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
When 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, because a cow doesn’t give me information.”
Voice of an Expert: Prime Radios and Sustainable Farming
During the rainy season, most parts of Luangwa Valley in eastern Zambia cannot be reached by government extension worker. There are too many streams between the villages and Nsefu where he lives. These streams overflow the low bridges and the water is infested with crocodiles.
Who Would Have Imagined Rwanda 25 Years On?
World headlines fixated on one event – the culmination of the long march to democracy in South Africa and the inauguration of Nelson Mandela. As Western media seem to feature one African story at a time, another African event was a footnote: an ‘African tribal war’ in a country not many had heard of.
Why I Give to Lifeline Energy #WRD
When my mother died in 2006, she left me some money ̶ not a life-changing amount, but enough to think about. If you have enough money to stay afloat, I find the most fun you can have with money is throwing it at things that matter
#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...
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...
