Market Access via Radio for Rwandan Coffee Farmers

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Summary

Provide Freeplay radios to coffee farmers in the remote hills of Rwanda. Farmers can increase income and coffee quality through radio access to market prices, farming techniques and weather reports. progress reportread updates from the field

How Donors Like You Helped

Thanks to donors like you, a total of $155 was raised for this project.

Received $155 from 3 donations from people like:

Jim Sims
(Anon.)

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More Information About this Project

Project Needs and Beneficiaries

More than 400,000 Rwandan farmers and their families are working to revitalize the country’s coffee industry and return Rwandan coffee to the global market. Many are widows from the 1994 genocide. Middlemen called “coyotes” mislead them as to the correct market price of coffee beans. This project works through existing farmer cooperatives to provide reliable market transparency and farming advice. On average, 100 farmers gather to listen to one Freeplay radio to hear this vital information.

Activities

Experienced coffee farmers gather weekly in groups of 100 at existing co-ops created with the help of Texas A&M University. Each group uses a Freeplay radio to listen to coffee programs we produce with experts, which are aired throughout Rwanda.

Funding Information

Total Funding Received to Date: $155

Funding Information

This project is now in implementation and no longer available for funding. Received funds will be used to accomplish concrete objectives as indicated in the project's "Activities" section. Updates will be posted under the "Progress Report" tab as they become available.

Donors' contributions and pledges to this project totaled $155.  The original project funding goal was $36,000.

Additional Documentation

This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).

Resources

Why this Project is Important

Potential Long Term Impact

Isolated coffee farmers can access information that helps them grow high-quality beans sold in specialty coffee stores worldwide. They can demand the correct market price for their beans, thereby earning higher incomes to take care of their families.

Project Message

“Without the radio, we would not have known exactly when to spray our trees. With the new techniques I am going to learn by radio, I will make more money and set my family’s life up for the future.”
- Ms. Leoncie Uwimana, Coffee farmer in the Abahuzamugambiba Kawa co-op

Who is Running This Project

Contact

Michelle Riley,
Senior Consultant
Freeplay Foundation c/o Holland Coffee
3010 Progress Road
Madison, Wisconsin 53716
United States
(912) 898-2195
Email:

Project Sponsor

Freeplay Foundation

Organization

Freeplay Foundation
71 Gloucester Place
London, United Kingdom W1U 8JW
United Kingdom
+ 44 (0) 207 935 53
http://www.freeplayfoundation.org

Learn more about Freeplay Foundation and the project team.


Freeplay Foundation's Funded Projects on GlobalGiving

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Radio Education for Out-of-School Zambian Children 		Radio education for South African AIDs orphans
Radio education for South African AIDs orphans 		Radios to Educate Child Laborers in Tanzania
Radios to Educate Child Laborers in Tanzania
Radios for Grassroots Democracy Project in Kenya
Radios for Grassroots Democracy Project in Kenya 		China Radio Information Project for the Blind
China Radio Information Project for the Blind

Where this Project is Located

Country

This project is located in Rwanda and can also be found under Economic Development.

For more information about Rwanda, read the Human Development Report on Rwanda or the Wikipedia entry for Rwanda.

When this Project was Updated

Last Updated

This project was last updated on January 24, 2008.

Date Added to GlobalGiving

This project was added to the GlobalGiving project catalog on August 01, 2006.

Latest Update from the Field

News Release - Tom Hanks hosts eBay Charity Auction

By Michelle Riley - Director of External Affairs, January 24, 2008 02:26 PM

New York, January 21, 2008…. The Freeplay Foundation announced today that two-time Academy Award® winner Tom Hanks will participate in a charity auction hosted on eBay Giving Works Jan 22-Feb 1 to support the Freeplay Foundation.

Tom Hanks, the Freeplay Foundation’s U.S. Ambassador, will autograph 10 self-powered Freeplay Lifeline radios for the charity auction on eBay Giving Works, eBay’s dedicated program for charity listings. Each high bidder also will receive a personal letter and a signed photo from Mr. Hanks.

“The Lifeline radio can change the world – one person, one house, one village at a time,” said Mr. Hanks. “The beauty of the Freeplay Foundation is the radio itself and the immediacy of its mission: to put radios in the hands of people who need them. Lifeline radios can make a positive impact from the moment they are turned on in one of the villages.”

People can go to www.ebay.com or can click on www.shopvictoriously.com to place their bids and to watch a special video from Tom Hanks.

Lifeline radios are not sold commercially; they are the first radios ever produced specifically for use in humanitarian projects. Radio is the primary means of mass communication in developing countries, but often, transistor radio batteries cost too much for people to buy on an ongoing basis and electricity is non-existent. The Freeplay Foundation provides radio access to the poorest people in the world via the wind-up and solar-powered radios, which do not require batteries or electricity.

Working mainly in Africa, the Freeplay Foundation enables hundreds of thousands of children to learn English, math, science and life skills through radio distance-learning programs. Coffee farmers learn new planting techniques using Lifeline radios, and people throughout Africa learn how to prevent HIV/AIDS while listening to their Lifelines. Nomadic tribes listen to Lifeline radios as they caravan, and orphaned children -- living completely on their own – can grasp a “lifeline” to the outside world when listening.

“The first time I held a Lifeline, I felt like I was carrying all the promise of the modern world in my hand,” remembers Tom Hanks. “Music can come out of the sky without batteries being tossed into landfills. Information can be sent and received, and voices of freedom can be heard. All by winding up this little box.”

The Freeplay Foundation is a fund-seeking organization with 501 (c) (3) tax exempt status in the U.S., is a registered charity in the UK, and has Section 21 non-profit status in South Africa.

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Media contacts:
East Coast: Alexandrea Ravenelle, Global Fluency
(646) 652-5216 aravenelle@globalfluency.com
West Coast: Brielle Schaeffer, Global Fluency
(650) 433-4163 bschaeffer@globalfluency.com
For the Freeplay Foundation: Michelle Riley
(912) 898-2195 riley.freeplayfdn@gmail.com


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