Using Radio to Fight Poverty

The Freeplay Foundation Lifeline Radio Aims to Change the World

Jun 19, 2009

The relatively affluent western world views radio more as an entertainment medium. For parts of the developing world it's a lifeline.

‘Wind-up radio’ in the west and more well off parts of the radio world, has become to mean shock jocks, irate phone-in callers, unsuspecting victims of prank calls, and cleverly edited pieces of radio humour designed to entertain the part of a radio station’s audience that finds practical jokes funny. It’s the radio equivalent of a genre also popular on many TV channels developing some people’s penchant for practical jokes.

Wind Up the World.

Wind-up radio in many less well off parts of the globe has a totally different meaning. For some it can literally mean the difference between life and death. The Freeplay Foundation according to the ‘Who we are’ section of their own website, “is an internationally acclaimed humanitarian organisation." We’ve helped more than 8 million poor and vulnerable people improve the quality of their daily lives through the distribution of sustainable, self powered and environmentally friendly technologies."

In common with most technologies these would appear to be in continual development, with work in progress towards more self sustaining, self powered technology.

Freeplay Lifeline Radio.

The Lifeline Radio, a development from an original clockwork torch and the British inventor Trevor Baylis’s Clockwork Radio, was designed “specifically to connect people,” mainly in remote area where access to produced, delivered and readily available power sources is difficult or non-existent. The Lifeline Radio gets its power source now not from clockwork, but by self winding re-chargeable battery power or solar power. The advantages for those living in remote areas are many.

The radio itself is designed to be tough, sturdy, easy to use and able to survive the harshest conditions. It’s also very colourful, waterproof and can receive AM, FM, and 2 shortwave frequencies.

Listening Figures.

According to the foundation’s figures, “since 2003 more than 200,000 Lifeline Radios have been distributed, conservatively reaching 8 million listeners,” with although the main emphasis of their operations are in sub- Saharan Africa, with the Lifeline radio and other self sustaining projects you’ll find the Freeplay Foundation work in:

Background and Ambassadors.

The Freeplay Foundation was established in 1998 by Freeplay Energy, to exist as a wholly separate non-profit organisation and is a registered charity in England and Wales, and as charitable organisations in the USA, and South Africa.

Speaking often on its behalf and to support the work the foundation does with the Lifeline radio, Freeplay Lifelight, and Waza Generator, Freeplay counts among its ambassadors Actor Tom Hanks, Writer and Broadcaster Terry Waite (CBE), and Climber and Explorer, Sibusiso Vilane.

The Lifeline radio and the aim of the Freeplay Foundation is to “transform lives,” of people in parts of the world that are most able to benefit from “dependable, self sufficient and environmentally friendly technologies.” It’s perhaps interesting but maybe not surprising that one of the ways they chose to try and achieve this was with one of the most instant and easily accessible mediums available, Radio.

The copyright of the article Using Radio to Fight Poverty in Radio Industry is owned by Dan Mccurdy. Permission to republish Using Radio to Fight Poverty in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.