Radios for Sierra Leone: information and Ebola

More than a year has passed since Ebola was first identified in Sierra Leone, and the country is still grappling with the challenge of eliminating the virus.

We are working with Child to Child, the only international NGO working in a remote and under-served area in Eastern Sierra Leone: the Kissi region of the Kailahun District, where Ebola first came to Sierra Leone. It is a mountainous, isolated area, with people who are mainly subsistence farmers. The region has a particularly high illiteracy rate due to its isolation and poor educational infrastructure. Sierra Leone is a multilingual country, with English as the official language, and Krio the most widely spoken. 

Child to Child will distribute our Prime radios and Lifeplayers to families and in schools and children’s groups, as well as to community leaders. They have been working on an educational radio program with Comic Relief, on education and health awareness, with a particular focus on promoting gender equality. The programs will be broadcast on two main radio stations in the area.

The success of this project will depend on children having radios to listen to. Quite simply, what is the point of such radio programs if children have no way to hear them?  In such an impoverished area, many adults do not own radios, and if they do, cannot afford the ongoing cost of batteries. Further, there is little or no electricity supply. Having Lifeplayers too means that programming can be recorded and listened to again.

We would like to acknowledge the incredible support we have received from GlobalGiving for this project, which has allowed Child to Child to send more products to Sierra Leone. As we write this report, our Prime radios and Lifeplayers are on their way there.  In our next report, we hope to bring you updates and pictures of how they’re being used in the Kissi region, and the impact that this project is having on communities living there.