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Tom Hanks and Kristine Pearson holding a Freeplay windup radio
Kristine Pearson with Tom Hanks, who knows the power of radio

Tackling Energy Poverty

Lifeline Energy Blog / Updates from Field

Updates from Field

Enabling Students to Study Safely

May 13, 2011

Project manager Chhavi Sharma distributes lights to students in Nairobi slum

Little Bees School is run by Mama Lucy Odipo in Starehe, a densely populated section of Nairobi’s Mathare Valley slum. Lifeline Energy has been working there for more than three years. Kristine Pearson, Lifeline Energy’s CEO, and I were there to distribute solar-powered and wind-up Lifelights.

When questioned about their study habits, they told us that they usually read by the poor flame of a candle or koroboi, the traditional kerosene lamp made from tin cans. Even then, their use is economised and carefully budgeted, so that the kerosene can be made to last as many days as possible.  All members of the household have to share it, as there is no electricity in the area.

The children use the substitutes for electricity, i.e. the candle or koroboi, to study and do their homework in the evenings, but cannot do so for more than 20-30 minutes at a stretch, as the smoke greatly irritates their eyes and often makes them spit up black soot, they went on to explain.

The hazardous and undesirable effects of candles and kerosene on indoor air quality, which result in health – especially respiratory – issues and accidents, such as burns and fires, is well documented. These children, some as young as 12 years old, confront these problems on a daily basis, since they also use the candles and korobois to go to the communal toilets and assist their mothers with household chores, like preparing the dinner, washing the utensils and making the beds, after dark.

The children told us that the lights will enable them to study for one or two hours every night, giving them enough time to complete their homework. They believe ti will improve their academic performance in school over time. This was extremely important to them, as some of them are gearing up for national exams at the end of this year, which will gain them entry into secondary schools. In addition, the lights will help them feel safer by making it easy for them to spot thieves lurking in the alleyways and snakes and scorpions, when they walk to the toilets in the dark. Household size averages five in Starehe and all will now benefit.

The distribution of the lights was empowering for so many children and their families, and extremely moving for both Kristine and myself, as it gave them access to a practical tool that will help change their lives and brighten their future in more ways than one with immediate effect.

Filed under: News,Updates from Field — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — ChhaviSharma @ 3:12 pm
1,000 radios delivered to Haiti

October 8, 2010

An update by Chhavi Sharma in Port-au-Prince

Haiti's damaged presidential palace

Just a quick update on Lifeline Energy’s Haiti appeal, as I’ve got a lot to complete for the week that I’m here.

An NDI makeshift information centre in Port-au-Prince

I arrived on Monday to distribute 1,000 wind-up and solar-powered radios to the survivors of Haiti’s devastating earthquake.  As mentioned in our appeal page, we are working with the National Democratic Institute (NDI), International Relief and Development (IRD) and the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) to help the 1.5 million Haitians, including 300,000 children, who remain displaced.

For NDI, the radios are being distributed to people living in areas/blocks around information centres that have been set up by NDI in Carrefour – an impoverished area in residential Port-au-Prince.

The community has not had electricity for one week. Even on the best of days, people in Haiti have four to five hours of electricity per day, so the people were very excited to listen to political news. As there are presidential and legislative elections in Haiti at the end of November, NDI is promoting access to the electoral campaign, the candidates profiles and the national reconstruction plan after the earthquake.

IRD is working in Leogane – a coastal city in Haiti – that was 90 percent destroyed. IRD is building shelters out of wood and corrugated metal to re-house displaced people living in temporary camps. The radios are being distributed to people living in these shelters to give them access to information – in particular early warnings for hurricanes and the election campaign.

Although it was very sad to see the impact of the earthquake on this beautiful island, it was also satisfying to have finally come out here and distributed these vital radios. I know the radios will make a difference to the thousands of displaced Haitians by providing them with information on aid, political developments and weather warnings.

A view of Carrefour – an impoverished residential area that was 70 percent destroyed in the January earthquake

Haitians living in the capital's growing tent cities

Filed under: Updates from Field — ChhaviSharma @ 3:58 pm
Liberia – a first visit

August 25, 2010

Written by Kristine Pearson


Flying into Monrovia’s Roberts Field

I’ve been to nearly half of the countries in Africa, but this is my first visit to Liberia – the first African country to elect a female president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Sitting in the window seat of an old Ethiopian Airways plane, I noticed a fleet of UN helicopters as we descended over the Atlantic beaches and into Robert Field. We joined the only other aircraft – a Kenya Airways flight that had left Accra shortly before us.

I’m excited for the eight days ahead.

The tall and affable immigration officer, who was wearing a pressed brown uniform, was the most welcoming person to have ever stamped my passport.  My bags emerged last on the smallest luggage carousel that I’ve ever seen.

The airport was destroyed during the 14-year civil war that claimed an estimated 250,000 lives and left one million people displaced. A once viable and functioning economy was destroyed, entire villages were deserted and every family was impacted.  I’ve seen first-hand from Rwanda, Sudan and Mozambique the wreckage that war leaves on government institutions, commerce, households, landscapes and the people, especially women and children. Evidence of the conflict remains everywhere, with bombed out-deserted buildings, crumbling infrastructure and young people missing a hand or walking on crutches a common sight.

However, progress is also visible.  The Chinese have built a new tarmac road from the airport to town. Markets are thriving with stalls of locally grown produce, necessities and imported Chinese goods; petrol stations abound in Monrovia’s busy streets crowded by new cars (many shiny SUVs); buildings are getting coats of paint and lots of multi-story ones are under construction.  But the task of rebuilding this country’s infrastructure and human capital is monumental and every sector competes for donor aid and investment.

Recipients of Foundation for Women loans

I’m here on mission with the Foundation for Women – a San Diego-based micro-finance firm headed by my friend Deborah Lindholm.  Deborah and Ann Lovell (we serve on the Women’s Leadership Board at the Kennedy School together) stopped by the Foundation for Women’s Monrovia office this morning. Several groups of women had come long distances when they learned Deborah was coming.  We were welcomed with songs of praise.  The women take out small loans starting at $100 for income generating activities and have a payback rate of 98%.

Even though thousands of women are earning income, they still have to buy candles,  kerosene for lighting or cheap battery operated Chinese-made lights that don’t last more than a few months. The current options are costly, hazardous and damaging to the environment. That’s why Lifeline Energy and Foundation for Women are teaming up in a new initiative, Women Lighting-up Africa, starting in Liberia which will see women set-up in renewable lighting enterprises.

Filed under: Kristine Pearson's blog,Updates from Field — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Lifeline Energy @ 1:59 pm
Financial Literacy for Adolescent Girls in Burundi

June 2, 2010

Adolescent Girls With Lifeline Radios

Written by Chhavi Sharma

Ish… Ish… Ishaka echoed the Mission Suedoise hall full of more than 80 adolescent girls in Bujumbura, all between the ages of 14 and 22. Eager to learn about how to use their solar-powered and wind-up Lifeline radios and how to get the most out of the financial literacy, sexual and reproductive health, and life skills programmes created for them by Radio Publique Africaine, the girls listened enthusiastically and participated actively as I conducted the training.

Despite the interpretation time lag – from French to Kirundi and Swahili – the girls were bursting with questions about the radios and the Guardian Agreements. They were impatient to know why only one person had been selected as the safe-keeper of the radio, and if it was a fair process in the Solidarity Groups, as the group’s savings are kept in a locked box that has three padlocks, held by three different girls. The girls, part of a CARE International’s village savings and loans project in Burundi, were some of the most outspoken, articulate and interactive beneficiaries that I have come across in my training sessions and were a real pleasure to work with.

The Iskaha project aims to educate girls to access safe savings and financial resources, as well as improve life skills and social support systems, to enable them to steer the transitions from adolescence to adulthood.

Filed under: Updates from Field — Tags: , , , , , , , , — ChhaviSharma @ 10:15 am
The Hope of a Bright Future

March 25, 2010

A head of household safely reading with her new Lifelight

A granny enjoys reading a Bible with her new Lifelight

Written by Kristine Pearson

I remember in 1995 when the first tin shacks went up in the Joe Slovo informal settlement not far from what is now Johannesburg University (formerly Rand Afrikaans University). It made headlines as local residents fought against a ‘squatter camp’ going up in the empty field in their neighbourhood. Fifteen years and 20,000 residents later, Joe Slovo remains unelectrified with limited services, although it does have running tap water and toilets.

We brightened the lives of 40 mainly granny-headed families who use candles or paraffin (kerosene) wick lamps for lighting with Lifelights. They all feel nervous and stressed about the use of candles and paraffin because of how easily they can tip over and start fires. The cramped makeshift houses are tight next to one another like rabbit warren, with very narrow walkways. The walkways in most parts are covered by carpet under-felt. This is the first time I’ve seen this in an informal settlement. Fires are common resulting in dire consequences, sweeping through the settlement at terrifying speed.

Project Manager Chhavi Sharma with Assistant Research Aaliya Sadruddin

Project Manager Chhavi Sharma with Assistant Research Aaliya Sadruddin

Our partner organisation, Children of Fire, which does heroic work with victims of fire, identified the beneficiary families and we conducted a training session at a school outside Joe Slovo’s perimeter. Accompanied by our project manager, Chhavi Sharma and intern researcher Aalyia Sadruddin, after the distribution we visited with a couple of the grannies in their homes.

This is is 62-year-old granny and former domestic worker, Eveline, who is one of Joe Slovos residents who lives in the centre of the settlement. She’s seen many fires over the years and was very pleased to have a Lifelight.

Filed under: Updates from Field — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , — Kristine Pearson @ 4:32 pm
The Lifelight becomes Sonia’s ‘Guardian Protector’

March 5, 2010

Written by Kristine Pearson

Sonia studying with her Lifelight

Sonia studying with her Lifelight

Location: Near Nyamata town, Rwanda

I first met Sonia in October 2009 when she received her Lifelight.  She was shy for her age and wore her best Sunday yellow church dress with frills and lace to the distribution session held at a local community hall. Just barely 14,  she became the head of her household last September when her mother died of TB. Her father died in August.  Sonia looks after her two year old sister, Salah, who clung tightly to Sonia’s leg. Their grandmother, birthed 16 of her own children, is frail but has taken in three other orphaned grandchildren. The Grandmother also looks after Salah during the day, enabling Sonia to remain in school.

We arrived unannounced at Sonia’s small,  two-roomed traditional mud and thatch house in the late afternoon just as the black sky threatened a downpour.  She was using her Lifelight to make schoolwork revisions in her cramped sitting room which is no more than a metre wide and two metres long.  Since having her light, Sonia says that she can study inside day or night and feels much safer as she can see predators like spiders and rats when making her bed.  She also uses the light to walk safely to her grandmother’s house 100 metres away. Sonia told me that her light has become her ‘guardian protector’.

Filed under: Updates from Field — Tags: , , , , , , , — Kristine Pearson @ 7:52 pm
Lifelight to the Rescue for Rwandese Children Using Diesel Fuel For Light

Written by Kristine Pearson

lifelight-group-03-11fa3bf

Location: Near Nyamata town, Rwanda

For nearly three years, I’ve been focusing on understanding the use of firewood, kerosene and candles by vulnerable children and women in sub-Saharan Africa. I often write and speak about how kerosene, outside South Africa, is largely unregulated in sub-Saharan Africa and of its dangers. The havoc it wreaks on people’s lives in their quest to have light after dark is not widely reported.

This week my colleague, Phil Goodwin, and I distributed Lifelights to child-heads of households between the ages of 13 and 20 and asked them my usual list of questions. But I heard something that I have never heard before. Alarmingly, they are buying diesel fuel instead of kerosene or mixing the two together because it is cheaper. Diesel is even more toxic and flammable than kerosene and this new development is very worrying. The children told us that they dig in neighbour’s fields to earn money, and the three things that they buy are lighting fuel (kerosene or diesel) by the tablespoon, salt and soap. When they have no money, they use firewood for light.

Each of the 12 children were thrilled to receive their light, saying that this light would free them from the dangers of liquid fuel and give them safe light in which cook, wash, study and walk after dark. Being able to make their bed and to see bugs, snakes or rats before getting into it, as they generally sleep on the ground, gave them comfort and they broke out into spontaneous applause.

Filed under: Updates from Field — Tags: , , , , , , — Kristine Pearson @ 6:20 pm
Energy that Fuelled 18 Smiles in Diepsloot Johannesburg, South Africa by Aalyia Sadruddin

January 15, 2010

MaAfrika Tikkun community centre in Diepsloot

Children at MaAfrika Tikkun community centre receive Lifelights

‘Good afternoon everyone, how are you today?’ said Kristine Pearson in a cheerful voice. I smiled nervously as I took out my newly purchased notebook. I had been looking forward to this visit for a while. It was the first time I was to make a trip into the field under the guidance of Kristine, my mentor who is the CEO of Lifeline Energy, as an aspiring researcher.

Our field site was a new MaAfrika Tikkun community centre in Diepsloot, a township settlement which sits on the edge of one of Johannesburg’s most up-market suburbs, Dainfern. Diepsloot is home to roughly 150, 000 people, most of who live in two by three meter shacks constructed from pretty much any material one can lay his or her hands on. Such materials include wood, plastic, cardboard and scrap metal. HIV/AIDS, high unemployment, food insecurity, recurrent xenophobia and persistent crime are endemic issues in settlements such as Diepsloot. MaAfrika Tikkun is a NGO which is committed to care for vulnerable children in townships in a compassionate manner that is sustainable over time.

I visited numerous informal settlements in my home country Kenya however I was embarrassed at my naivety when I visited MaAfrika Tikkun, for having never considered the importance of clean lighting. Each girl and boy in the group we visited was susceptible to contracting ailments which affect their eyes and lungs. Such children are forced to use kerosene and candles as their homes lack electricity. I researched kerosene and read that children drink it, as they mistake it for juice or water.

This fact made my nerve twitch even faster when I heard, Tshepo, 12, said that he watched his two year-old sister drink kerosene, which subsequently led to her death. Tsepho’s story makes me question the limited attention paid by governments towards the use of unsafe household fuel. In addition, the children in the group were afraid of being kidnapped or ‘stolen’ as one of the girls, Mercy, expressed. Using candles and kerosene makes it difficult for normal activities such as completing homework using the toilet, and visiting friends after the sun sets. Even though the children faced hardships in their everyday lives, each appeared to have the will to progress, a quality that made me respect all 18 children even more deeply.

My afternoon in Diepsloot made me realise the importance of distributing aid in a locally sensitive, respectful, yet effective manner. Attaining access to clean, safe and sustainable energy has the ability to plant a permanent smile on the faces of those who are not accustomed to having access to the resource. I was dually humbled and injected with hope at seeing each child engage in an astoundingly simple winding activity, and create their own light- a true Harry Potter moment.

My sincere appreciation goes to Kristine Pearson and Chhavi Sharma who over the last six months have taken me under their wings, helped to train and encouraged me to understand the broader vision of Lifeline Energy.

*Aalyia Sadruddin is a Researcher for Lifeline Energy.

Filed under: Updates from Field — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , — Lifeline Energy @ 3:53 pm
Children promise to ‘study their way out of poverty’

December 8, 2009

The most rewarding aspect of my job is talking to and getting to understand those Lifeline Energy serves. Out of the more than 250 young people we met, all study to candles, either individually or in pairs and the study ethic is strong. This is also an area with an astonishingly high crime rate, including robbery, rape and murder. To a child, every one was afraid to venture out at night. They said that the Lifelights would help them to feel more secure, especially when they had to venture to their outside pit latrines after dark.

There were many young people who really impressed me despite the loss of their parents and the poverty in which they live.

Zanele, 17 with Lifelight

Zanele, 17, high school student with Lifelight

This amazing young woman, Zanele, 17, is an excellent high school student in a rural village. Her best subject is geography and she hopes to attend university on a bursary. The Gogo, 46, looks after 4 children. Zanele is eldest. After school she washes her uniform, helps cook, garden and clean and then tries to study with the others to one candle.

Xolani, 13 South Africa’s Next Chess Champion

Xolani, 13 South Africa’s next chess champion with Lifelight

Meet South Africa’s next chess champion, Xolani, 13. This engaging young man who excels at maths and science took up chess in Themalethu Home Based Care’s after school chess programme. Xolani lives with his Gogo (whose pension they live on) and 6 other children and told me all 7 share a candle to study. His grandparents fled the civil war in Mozambique in the 80’s. He speaks Shangani, Swazi and English.

6 Learners Study by with the Lifelight

Study Group with the Lifelight

This is a study group in one of the villages I visited that is now using their new Lifelight instead of a candle. They told me that they planned to ‘study their way out of poverty’. Thembalethu, will track academic performance over the next few months to see if studying to clean lighting really does improve grades as the expect that it will.

Filed under: Updates from Field — Tags: , , , , , , , — Kristine Pearson @ 5:58 pm
The devastation of HIV/AIDS in the Nkomazi District

December 1, 2009

We’ve just completed two days (about half) of the Lifelight distributions in support of vulnerable children and caregivers in the South Africa’s Nkomazi District which has a population of between 500-700,000 depending on what you read.  Neighbouring Swaziland has the world’s highest HIV rate and thousands of children have migrated to South Africa.  Although some are South African over many generations, we also spoke with Shangani-speaking families of refugees who fled across the border with Mozambique during the 20 year civil war that ended in 1992. The majority are Swazi and the local first language is Swazi (similar to Zulu) and even though English is taught in school I require an interpreter as only a handful of the children can understand or speak English. The ones that do, I interview one-on-one while the paperwork is being carried out.

Jeanette studying to a candle

Jeanette studying to a candle

This is 14-year old Jeanette who lives with her 6 cousins and Gogo (grandmother) & Mkulu (grandfather) whose 3 daughters passed away from ‘illness’. The likelihood of it being HIV/Aids is high since prevalence of the disease in this area is an estimated 45-50%. All 7 pupils study on the floor to an inefficient candle flame. I gave her a lift home in my mini-van taxi to Jeppe’s Reef and asked her if she could please show me how she did her homework.  Like all the children I’ve come across here, she studies on the floor. The children in this household were all born in Swaziland; therefore, they do not receive government social grants.  However, the elders receive a pension.

Our visit was on World AIDS Day, which was a sharp reminder of how devastating HIV/AIDS is, especially today.

Filed under: Updates from Field — Tags: , , , , — Kristine Pearson @ 7:23 pm
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