Radio Education for Out-of-School Zambian Children

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Summary

Working with Zambia's Ministry of Education and EDC, we aim to provide access to full primary education through radio distance learning to 800,000 orphans and vulnerable children progress reportread updates from the field

How Donors Like You Helped

Thanks to donors like you, a total of $2,809 was raised for this project.

Received $2,809 from 11 donations from people like:

CMH
Skylar
(Anon.)

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More Information About this Project

Project Needs and Beneficiaries

800,000 Zambian children cannot attend formal education, as they live too far from a school or are AIDS orphans or children from desperately poor families. Adding to the problem, many teachers in Zambia fall sick and die of AIDS. In a sweeping effort to combat illiteracy and improve life skills, the Ministry's Education Broadcasting Service has implemented highly successful radio instruction. It covers the primary school curriculum, and is called "Learning at Taonga Market."

Activities

In remote Zambian villages, a literate volunteer is trained as a mentor. They are given a Lifeline radio. Using Interactive Radio Instruction created by US-based Educational Development Center (EDC), mentors lead children through grade school lessons

Funding Information

Total Funding Received to Date: $2,809

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 $2,809.  The original project funding goal was $22,000.

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

This project will help create a literate population in Zambia. More than 220,000 children have benefited to date. They test as well as children attending formal school, score a little higher in math, and complete grade levels in half the time

Project Message

"I cannot believe what I am seeing! Many children have no pen or pencil and are doing complicated fractions and division problems in their heads. They also have learned English and spelling!"
- Mr. Misinde Phiri, of World Vision, about "Learning at Taonga Market"

Who is Running This Project

Contact

Jody Ehlers Buttenshaw,
Freeplay Foundation Projects Manager
Freeplay Foundation
56-58 Conduit Street
London, W1S 2YZ
United Kingdom
011-44-207-851-2631
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

Radios to Support Tsunami Survivors in Indonesia
Radios to Support Tsunami Survivors in Indonesia 		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
Market Access via Radio for Rwandan Coffee Farmers
Market Access via Radio for Rwandan Coffee Farmers 		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 Zambia and can also be found under Education.

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

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 25, 2004.

Latest Update from the Field

News Release - Tom Hanks hosts eBay Charity Auction

By Michelle Riley - Director of External Affairs, January 24, 2008 02:25 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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