Lifeline Energy (formerly Freeplay Foundation) is a non-profit social enterprise that provides technology solutions[buzzword] for off-grid learning. The organization designs, manufactures and distributes solar and wind-up media players and radios for classroom and group listening and was behind the first solar and wind-up radio for humanitarian use which launched in 2003. Since it began operations in 1999 more than 550,000 wind-up and solar powered radios and media players have been distributed, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. Millions of listeners have been reached, as classrooms of up to 60 children or listening groups can use each radio or media player.
Lifeline Energy is a 501 (c) (3) US charity and a Section 18A and 21 South African public benefit organisation, and relies on contributions from individuals, family foundations, corporate funding and government-sponsored programmes. It collaborates with governments, international relief organizations and in-country NGO partners to implement education and information projects. In 2009, it established Lifeline Technologies Trading Ltd, a for-profit new product development and trading arm that designs and develops the products that Lifeline Energy uses in its projects. This is a relatively unique hybrid business structure with Lifeline Technology's profits accruing to the charity.
The Times, a UK newspaper, selected Lifeline Energy (then known as Freeplay Foundation) as a beneficiary for its 2005/2006 Christmas Charity Appeal. The organization was also awarded the first annual Tech Museum of Innovation Award in the education category in 2001[1] and won the Energy Project award in the World Bank’s Development Marketplace in 2006.
The Lifeplayer MP3 was awarded a top prize in the inaugural SAB Foundation Innovation awards in 2011[2] and was also chosen as a finalist in the INDEX: Design to Improve Life award in the same year.[3]
Lifeline Energy’s current on-going projects include a radio distance education programme in Zambia[4] and providing information and education access to Somali women refugees in Kenya’s Dadaab camps.[5]
History
The Freeplay Foundation was legally established in late 1998 by Rory Stear, the co-founder of Freeplay Energy Group. Freeplay Energy, which by then was a public company, was sold in July 2008 to Delhi-based businessman Devin Narang. Rory Stear – along with all other directors - resigned from Freeplay Energy Group in 2008.[6]
Lifeline Energy runs under the direction of chief executive officer, Kristine Pearson.[7] She has held this position since January 1999 when the charity became operational.
On 8 April 2010 the Freeplay Foundation changed its name to Lifeline Energy.
Over the years Lifeline Energy has implemented information and education projects using solar and wind-up radios in more than a dozen countries in sub-Saharan Africa. These include Rwanda, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Niger, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Burundi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Sudan and Sudan.
Lifeline Energy is technology agnostic and focused on finding appropriate ways to improve the lives of those it aims to assist. It seeks technology solutions[buzzword] to meet these challenges – whether high or low tech. As with its Lifeplayer MP3, Lifeline Energy encapsulates known technologies (solar, battery, audio, radio, MP3) in products that are developed to meet the challenges of the environment and social contexts of their use. Products must be robust, intuitive in their function and sustainable, even for the least sophisticated users.
The Lifeplayer MP3
The Lifeplayer MP3 was launched to the media in September 2010.[9] It was the world’s first MP3, 5-band radio and recorder designed specifically for humanitarian use and group listening. Solar-powered and wind-up, it was designed to give large groups of up to 50 people sustainable listening access. Listening content is pre-loaded on a microSD card, and the Lifeplayer can record live voice or radio programmes for playback later.
In 2011, the Lifeplayer MP3 was launched in a project for farmers in Rwanda, in partnership with the multinational giant SC Johnson and a US-based NGO, Radio Lifeline.[10] The initiative disseminated information on modern farming techniques, market information and health news to Rwandan pyrethrum farmers via MP3 podcasts and a monthly nationwide FM radio programme. Since then, it has been used in a number of initiatives, including school lessons for children, health information for women's listening groups, and conservation and farming skills for farmers.
The Lifeplayer was created and developed by Lifeline Energy and Lifeline Technologies. Its approach to new product development is end-user focused and based on field feedback. The development funding was raised through private donations. Supporters of the Lifeplayer include James Kimonyo - Rwanda's Ambassador to the U.S. - as well as Academy Award winner Tom Hanks.[11]
The Prime
The Prime radio replaced the Lifeline radio - the first solar and wind-up radio made exclusively for the humanitarian sector[12] and which Lifeline Energy and Kristine Pearson innovated. Prime radios can reach up to 60 listeners and has five bands – AM, FM and three short-wave bandwidths. It also features an LCD screen, a solar panel, a hand crank, and a DC input that can be plugged into either a wall socket or a car battery. The solar panels can charge the radio directly through a cable or can charge wirelessly.
The Prime radio improves on its predecessor, the Lifeline. In 2001, the Lifeline radio concept won the first Tech Museum of Innovation Award for Technology Benefiting Humanity for Lifeline Energy, in the education category. During the development the organisation arranged focus groups of orphaned children in South Africa, Kenya and Rwanda. The focus group findings determined that the radio needed to be a bright colour, easy to carry and robust.
Energy poverty and lighting research
Since its inception, Lifeline Energy has undertaken in-depth research into the effects of energy poverty, specifically how it relates to lighting and energy access, in remote areas throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Research was conducted in rural and peri-urban slum areas of South Africa to determine how much child and grandmother-headed families spent on candles and kerosene for lighting per month. The research involved looking at the types of tasks and activities that were used for lighting and the consequences people experienced as a result of their not having any access to electricity.
Zambia’s Learning at Taonga Market Education Initiative
Since 2000 Lifeline Energy has been helping to provide education access to vulnerable children taking part in the Learning at Taonga Market radio distance education initiative in Zambia. The programme offers a high quality primary school education to children who are unable to access government-run schools. Since the Zambian Ministry of Education launched it, close to 800,000 children have obtained a basic primary education.
Learning at Taonga Market is entirely free and has had a profound effect on orphaned children, who are often left out of Zambia’s education system. The informal classrooms are run by community volunteers who use Lifeline Energy’s solar and wind-up radios and Lifeplayers to access the daily radio broadcasts. Children taking part in Taonga Market performed better than conventional schools in reading, numeracy and life skills. Taonga Market students are also more likely to continue to secondary school than children in government-run schools.
Information and Education Access in Dadaab Refugee Camps
Since 2007 Lifeline Energy has distributed more than 1,100 solar and wind-up radios in the Dadaab refugee camps and nearby host communities, benefitting more than 15,000 Somali women directly. The radios provide access to programming on women’s rights, health and controversial issues such as female genital cutting. The radios also provide access to daily broadcasts on where refugees can attain food aid, how new refugees can register and where to locate lost relatives who have also travelled to the camps from neighboring countries.
The radios have also helped educate children. Using Lifeline Energy’s radios, children are able to access radio-based primary education lessons in Somali.
Ambassadors
Tom Hanks
Since 2003, Academy Award winner Tom Hanks has served as Lifeline Energy's American ambassador. He supports a range of projects including Lifeline radios for distance education in Tanzania.[13] and the organisation's Child Headed Household Lifeline radio project in Rwanda.[14] Hanks also is the primary funder behind the research and development of Lifelight.
Hanks participated in an eBay charity auction in which ten Lifeline radios autographed by Hanks were available. In addition to the radio, the highest bidder also received a personal letter and a signed photo from Hanks. During the campaign, Hanks stated that "The Lifeline radio can change the world – one person, one house, one village at a time."[15]
Terry Waite
World-renowned British humanitarian Terry Waite (CBE) has served as the organisations European Ambassador since 2000. Waite recently stepped down as chairman of Lifeline Energy's UK Board of Trustees after nine years of service, but remains a patron.
Sibusiso Vilane
Two time Everest conqueror, South African Sibusiso Vilane, is Lifeline Energy's African Ambassador. Vilane fundraised for Lifeline radios by walking 1,113 kilometers (692 miles) to the South Pole, being the first black African to trek there. He stated "I thought if I can get a radio for every kilometre I walk that would be awesome."[16]
Awards and recognition
In 2014 the Lifeplayer MP3 featured in the Sustainia 100 Awards
In 2011 the Lifeplayer MP3 was an INDEX: Design to Improve Life finalist
In December 2011 Lifeline Energy and its Lifeplayer MP3 won a top prize in the inaugural SAB Foundation Innovation Awards.
In June 2011 the Lifeplayer MP3 was chosen as a finalist for the INDEX: Design to Improve Life award.
In April 2010, Lifeline Energy’s 'Coffee Lifeline Project' was awarded the 'Specialty Coffee Association of America’s (SCAA) 2010 Sustainability Award.
Kristine Pearson was selected as one of TIME magazine's Heroes of the Environment for 2007.[17]
In 2006, the Foundation was an Energy Project winner at the World Bank's Development Marketplace.[18]
The Times selected Freeplay Foundation (now Lifeline Energy) as a beneficiary for its Christmas Charity Appeal for 2005/2006.[19]
In 2005, Kristine Pearson was awarded the James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award at the Technology Museum of Innovation’s annual event. The president of Applied Materials at the Museum stated that "Kristine Pearson's broad vision and leadership, coupled with Freeplay's innovative technology, its creative application and the potential for replication in other countries, is changing millions of lives and solving critical challenges facing global society. It is fitting that Kristine receive this prestigious award for her outstanding work in South Africa and around the world."[20]
In 2003, Kristine Pearson was a finalist for Wharton-Infosys Business Transformation Award.[21]
In 2002 Freeplay Foundation won The Partnership for Sustainable Cities Award, which was presented by the King of Sweden.
Kristine Pearson is a fellow of the Schwab Foundation of the World Economic Forum
The BBC produced two programmes for the Freeplay Foundation which featured the Foundation’s work in Rwanda.[24]
The work of the charity has been shown on CNN's Inside Africa and Principle Voices series.
Lifeline Energy’s work has been featured in the Fast Company, Forbes.com, Time and the World Bank Blog.
A documentary featuring the Foundation’s Guns-for-Radios project in Niger was shown on the Arte Channel in Europe.
Related Research Articles
The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) is an eco-centre in Powys, mid-Wales, dedicated to demonstrating and teaching sustainable development. CAT, despite its name, no longer concentrates its efforts exclusively on alternative technology, but provides information on all aspects of sustainable living. It is open to visitors, offers postgraduate degrees as well as shorter residential and one day courses; and publishes information on renewable energy, sustainable architecture, organic farming, gardening, and sustainable living. CAT also runs education programmes for schools and sells environmentally friendly items through its on site shop, restaurant and mail order department.
Trevor Graham Baylis was an English inventor best known for the wind-up radio. The radio, instead of relying on batteries or external electrical source, is powered by the user winding a crank. This stores energy in a spring which then drives an electrical generator. Baylis invented it in response to the need to communicate information about AIDS to the "people of Africa". He ran a company in his name dedicated to helping inventors to develop and protect their ideas and to find a route to market.
Clean technology, in short cleantech, is any process, product, or service that reduces negative environmental impacts through significant energy efficiency improvements, the sustainable use of resources, or environmental protection activities. Clean technology includes a broad range of technology related to recycling, renewable energy, information technology, green transportation, electric motors, green chemistry, lighting, grey water, and more. Environmental finance is a method by which new clean technology projects can obtain financing through the generation of carbon credits. A project that is developed with concern for climate change mitigation is also known as a carbon project.
Google.org, founded in October 2005, is the charitable arm of Google, a multinational technology company. The organization has committed roughly US$100 million in investments and grants to nonprofits annually.
Camara is a social enterprise that sends refurbished computers and provides digital literacy training to schools and other educational institutions in Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia, Lesotho, Tanzania and Ireland.
Computer Aid International is a not-for-profit organisation active in the field of Information and Communication Technologies for Development. A registered charity, Computer Aid was founded in 1996 to bridge the digital divide by providing refurbished PCs from the UK to educational and non-profit organisations in developing countries.
Freeplay Energy Ltd, , is a manufacturer and distributor of portable electrical or electronic products such as radios and lights, generally powered by hand cranked generators that charge rechargeable batteries. The company is based in London, UK. The company focuses on creating and developing the international market for self-sufficient energy products, and states that such a focus will help promote education and access to important information throughout the developing world. The company has expanded its market to include outdoor leisure and emergency preparedness markets, seeing the clear demand for self-powered products in such off-grid environments.
The developing nations of Africa are popular locations for the application of renewable energy technology. Currently, many nations already have small-scale solar, wind, and geothermal devices in operation providing energy to urban and rural populations. These types of energy production are especially useful in remote locations because of the excessive cost of transporting electricity from large-scale power plants. The applications of renewable energy technology has the potential to alleviate many of the problems that face Africans every day, especially if done in a sustainable manner that prioritizes human rights.
Solar Cookers International (SCI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, non-governmental organization that works to improve human and environmental health by supporting the expansion of effective carbon-free solar cooking in world regions of greatest need. SCI leads through advocacy, research, and strengthening the capacity of the global solar cooking movement. SCI has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and was founded in 1987.
Sibusiso Vilane is a South African adventurer and motivational speaker and the author of the book To the Top from Nowhere. An adventurer, marathon runner and mountaineer and expedition leader, he has also served as the Chief Scout of Scouts South Africa.
Gaspar Makale was one of the pioneers of solar electrification in the African Great Lakes. During the 1990s, he was the Chief Solar Technician at the KARADEA Solar Training Facility (KSTF) in Karagwe District, Kagera in Northern Tanzania, situated between Lake Victoria and Rwanda.
The Lemelson Foundation is an American 501(c)(3) private foundation. It was started in 1993 by Jerome H. Lemelson and his wife Dorothy.
Farm Radio International, or Radios Rurales Internationales, is a Canadian non-profit organization that was founded in 1979 by CBC Radio broadcaster George Atkins. The organization is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, where it has become the first international non-profit organization to work uniquely with radio broadcasters to improve food security and agricultural methods for small-scale farmers in African countries using communication for development methods.
Innovation: Africa is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that brings Israeli solar, water and agricultural innovations to rural African villages. Founded in 2008, the organization has completed over 300 projects providing light and clean water to 1.8 million people in 10 African countries. Innovation: Africa maintains headquarters in the US and Israel and operates in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Malawi, Uganda, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Cameroon, Zambia and Eswatini.
Evans Wadongo is a Kenyan engineer, the Co-Founder of GreenWize Energy Ltd, the Executive Director and Founder of SDFA-Kenya., and one of CNN's top ten heroes of 2010. He is a graduate in Electronic and Computer Engineering from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya.
Agnes Binagwaho is a Rwandan pediatrician who is the vice chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity. In 1996, she returned to Rwanda where she provided clinical care in the public sector as well as held the position of Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health of Rwanda from October 2008 until May 2011 and Minister of Health from May 2011 until July 2016. She has been a Professor of Global Health Delivery Practice since 2016 and a Professor of Pediatrics since 2017 at the University of Global Health Equity. She resides in Kigali.
The Tech Awards is a program of The Tech Interactive wherein innovators from any country are recognized for technological contributions which benefit the greatest number of people.
WakaWaka is a global social enterprise that developed and sold portable solar products for people without access to electricity. The company was founded in 2012 by Maurits Groen and Camille van Gestel. WakaWaka means “shine bright” in Swahili. For every WakaWaka purchased, one solar light was donated to a family living without access to electricity. In July 2018 TSM Business School took over the brand name and the remaining stocks of WakaWaka, after the enterprise went bankrupt after failing to raise EUR 2.5 million in growth capital.
Established in 1994 by the Government of Canada as the Lester B. Pearson Canadian International Peacekeeping Training Centre was an independent, not-for-profit organization with its office based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Its mandate was to support Canada's contribution to international peace and security. Operations ceased and the Centre closed on November 28, 2013.
Zambia is potentially self-sufficient in sources of electricity, coal, biomass and renewable energy. The only energy source where the country is not self-sufficient is petroleum energy. Many of the sources of energy where the country is self-sufficient are largely unexploited. As of 2017, the country's electricity generating capacity stood at 1,901 megawatts.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
