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Lifeline Energy Blog / 2009 / February
February 2009
Lifeline Energy TVFebruary 17, 2009
February 6, 2009
Today we ran out of luck with the weather and we weren’t so lucky with our training location either. Most of our training sessions take place in community centers or schools. At today’s location we found out at the last minute that the large room we were going to use was hosting another meeting and we would have to make do with something smaller. Did I mention it was pouring rain? So after a brief delay, 30 or so soggy adults and children have all squeezed into a small room that could comfortably fit 15. It is also raining so hard that we need to shut the window and door to keep the rain out. We need to shout to be heard over the pounding rain. As soon as we all piled into the room we realized that our biggest challenge wasn’t going to be noise or space, but light. There wasn’t enough light to see each other, let alone the radios or the contracts that had to be signed. In our bags we had two new wind-up and solar powered Freeplay Lifelights – which we had been using for field-tests and demonstrations, and which were about to be put to their first formal use – lighting up our training session!
The lights have received an overwhelmingly positive response since we began field testing them – it’s often possible to understand simply by looking at people’s faces what kind of impact they would have on daily life. People smile, their eyes widen, they clap, and they handle the light and talk excitedly amongst each other… Every day of our trip I wished to have a magic bag that I could open up and take out a light for each person.
Radios and lights – technology that is so simple but brings such richness to people’s lives it almost needs to be seen to be believed. On visits to people’s homes I have seen how dark the houses are during the day, but here in this tiny room people were giving us a lesson – Do you see? Do you see how even during the day lighting can be a challenge? Do you know that already our days end so early? Do we know how much kerosene would have to be burned to light our session? Can you imagine how your eyes and throat would burn from the smoke? In that small room, with our clean energy lights shining we did imagine – and I reached for my magic bag…
February 5, 2009
When you ask a person in Rwanda what they do, most will say they are a farmer. Its easy to see why – Rwanda is lush and green, and every inch land seems to be used for agriculture. Most child-headed households in the countryside have small parcels of land left from their parents and on which they grow food. For most of these “farmers” the activities associated with farming – such as selling your produce at the market – simply do not apply. All of them are growing food for subsistence only – they eat what they grow. Some of the kids are supported by extended families that will share extra crops if they have them, or give the children some kerosene. This subsistence life means that these hardworking children are extremely poor – there is no money for school fees, kerosene or candles, or any extra food. A day in the life for these children means fetching water (which could be an hour’s walk each way), working in their garden, cooking a basic meal and going to bed when it gets dark, which in central Africa is between 6:00 and 7:00 pm.
As soon as I met them and listened to their stories, it was clear that the radios would have a tremendous, positive impact on their lives. The children spoke about how they felt isolated and lonely, how they were uncomfortable imposing on neighbours to listen to radio programmes, how they were tired of relying on others to pass on information. They wanted to listen first-hand from the voices they trusted on the radio. They were eager to learn and spoke of their plans to invite people over to listen to programmes and of how they were going to share with their friends as they worked in the garden everyday. The more the kids spoke about what they were going to do with their radios, the more they became visibly and excited. A day in their lives was about to change for the better with their radio!
Photo: Chhavi Sharma/Lifeline Energy 2009
For two days now we have been working with Trust & Care, a local organisation run primarily by volunteers providing a variety of support to vulnerable children. Over two days we have met 40 children who are the heads of households, looking after for their younger siblings. Most have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS.
For today’s distribution we are travelling a little further off the tarmac road – taking a turn onto a little used dirt track that would eventually lead us to a small school where the children would be waiting. The winding, bumpy road went past garden plots of banana trees, bean stalks and coffee plants and where turning a bend we came across a group of young people – one of whom was carrying a bright blue Lifeline radio.
Laurence, 20, looks after three younger siblings and attended our training session the day before. As a subsistence farmer, she was taking her new radio with her to listen to while she tended her garden plot. It was great to see her putting her radio to use, but I had to have a bit of a laugh as well – despite the big handle on the radio and our cheerful instructions during the trainings to “carry it like a handbag!” Laurence was holding the radio in her arms like a baby, with the bottom of the radio nestled in the paper packing carton that came with the box.
February 4, 2009
Photo: Chhavi Sharma, Lifeline Energy 2009
When I first heard the term “child- headed household” in the context of Rwanda, I thought immediately of course of the genocide and of the countless orphaned children left to care for younger siblings. As we prepare to mark 15 years since catastrophic event which left a million children orphaned, the phenomenon of child-headed households is not subsiding – children continue to be orphaned as a direct consequence of acts committed during the genocide. The area we were in today is especially affected – Bugasera district is an area where many Tutsi families were settled following a government programme in the 1950s and consequently was heavily targeted during the genocide. Today’s children are dealing with the effects of the incredibly high number of rapes that occurred. Bugasera now has high rates of HIV/ AIDS and most of the children we were meeting were orphaned because of it. Some had been orphans for as little as two years, while others for as long as ten years.
February 2, 2009
We have just arrived in Rwanda and are here to meet with our local partners and to conduct trainings and distributions of Freeplay Lifeline radios. Over two weeks we’ll be, working with groups as small as 20 and as big as 200 to assist in the distribution of 2,000 radios. The size of our partners is quite varied as well – from well-known organisations such as Care International, to small Rwandan organisations run by one person and a few volunteers. Since Kinyarwanda only is spoken by 85% of the population, we need interpreters. We’ll be travelling to rural areas outside of Kigali, as well as up to Musanze in the north. The training sessions are a chance for us to meet vulnerable women, children and families who are the recipients of new radios and we will spend time speaking with them and listening to their stories – many of which will be shared here on our website.
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