About Us
See Our GiftsOverview
The Freeplay Foundation is committed to promoting the importance of radio as a vital communication medium in the developing world. We believe that, like education, access to information is a fundamental human right.
Africa is home to an estimated 42 million orphans - the poorest of the poor. The least likely to have access to radio information. These communities are the focus of our work.
Mission
To help vulnerable people transform their lives using sustainable, self-sufficient and environmentally friendly technologies. We are committed to act as stewards of the environment to make clean energy technologies available to those in need.
Program
AIDS has orphaned an estimated 12 million children in Africa. Altogether, 42 million African children are orphaned from a number of causes. Faced with persistent poverty and a dearth of good, affordable and accessible education, millions of children are out of school and potentially at risk of being drawn into low-paying, dangerous employment and are vulnerable to exploitation and child trafficking.
Against this backdrop, the Freeplay Foundation created Radios for Education in Africa Project (REAP) to provide self powered Lifeline radios to ensure that the most vulnerable children have access, not only to education that will help them build a future but to vital health information on Aids and malaria which could save their lives.
In rural communities without electricity and where there is no money to buy batteries, which are hard to come by, the Lifeline radio, which needs no batteries or electricity, solves the problem of access. As many as forty children can gather together at informal classes and learn. Children without parents, bringing up other children learn essential survival skills--advice on growing food, how to boil water before drinking it--and learn about AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
Impact
The Freeplay Foundation works with large international agencies, as well as local NG0s to distribute radios to those that are most in need. Since it was launched, in 2003, 120,000 self-powered Lifeline radios have reached an estimated 2.5 million listeners. Reports from our projects in Zambia and Tanzania tell us that children learning by radio are getting higher marks than those in formal schools. In hundreds of distributions we have observed the Lifeline radio has the greatest impact on vulnerable children. A radio, providing soap operas, news bulletins and practical information to help them survive, changes lives for the better.
CEO
Kristine Pearson
Countries
Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Zambia, Uganda
Contact
71 Gloucester Place
London, W1U 8JW
United Kingdom
Phone: (+44) 207 9355350
www.freeplayfoundation.org
EIN: 13-4133423
Educate Farmers
Coffee crop support
The Lifeline radio will boost coffee taste and quality in Rwanda by broadcasting agricultural advice to growers – like when to spray insecticide to ensure their coffee trees are pest free. Farmers will also enjoy market –pricing transparency, learn up to date growing techniques, listen to weather bulletins and share information among competing coffee co operatives – all broadcast in their local language. Many farmers...
$6500 $65.00
Teach Life Skills
Radio for an orphan
The sturdy solar powered, wind-up Lifeline radio you will give will provide children with sustained access to programs which will explain the HIV virus, especially how it affects the body and how it can be contracted; It will tell them about AIDS prevention and treatment and warn them of dangerous for vulnerable children and how to protect oneself from attack and abuse. It will teach...
$6500 $65.00
Give Orphans Hope
Lifeline for children
The Lifeline radio you give will bring new hope to child headed households who live in conditions of extreme poverty and isolation, eking out a living by subsistence farming or doing odd jobs for neighbors who may exploit them. They may not be able to go to school or acquire basic life skills and information that they would normally have received from parents and community...
$6500 $65.00
Educate A Classroom
Radio for 40 children
Your gift of a radio will ensure that essential education and practical information reaches those most in need. Lifeline radio, which needs no batteries or electricity, provides sustained access to quality education. Robustly constructed to operate in the harshest of conditions, the Lifeline is rugged, easy to use and plays for many hours on wind-up energy or solar power. As many as 40 children can...
$6500 $65.00