Why this Project is Important

Potential Long Term Impact

AIDS orphans are among the most isolated, stigmatized, and vulnerable children. A Lifeline radio integrates them within their community. Through radio education they avoid disease, acquire education in life skills and gain advice on income-generation

Project Message

“I listen to so many things on my Lifeline radio. I share it with my neighbors too. I wish everyone here could have one because they bring so much joy and no one can afford batteries”
- Johannes, 16, Orange Farm Township, Head of Household for 11 & 6 year olds

Who is Running This Project

Contact

Kristine Pearson,
Executive Director, Freeplay Foundation
Unit 12, M5 Business Park
Black River Parkway
Maitland, South Africa 7405
South Africa
011 27 21 514 3800
Email:

Project Sponsor

Freeplay Foundation

Organization

Learn more about Freeplay Foundation and the project team.

Freeplay Foundation's Funded Projects on GlobalGiving

Radios to Support Tsunami Survivors in Indonesia	Radio Education for Out-of-School Zambian Children	Radios to Educate Child Laborers in Tanzania	Radios for Grassroots Democracy Project in Kenya
Market Access via Radio for Rwandan Coffee Farmers	China Radio Information Project for the Blind

Where this Project is Located

Country

This project is located in South Africa and can also be found under Education.

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

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 June 18, 2004.

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


Links:

• Freeplay Foundation
• eBay

• One of 10 Lifeline radios signed by Tom Hanks
• Tom Hanks - the Freeplay Foundation's U.S Ambassador

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