By Abigail Connolly | Fundraising Coordinator
In 2007 1,100 Freeplay solar-powered wind-up Lifeline radios were distributed to isolated child-headed households in Rwanda. Working with our local partner organisation, Care Rwanda, we know that one radio averages 20 listeners, resulting in 22,000 orphaned children now having much needed access to practical and helpful information on demand. With timely and accurate information these children can make better and more informed choices and decisions for themselves and their families. The children – particularly those who head families and care for younger siblings – now have daily access to programmes about HIV/Aids and other critical health issues, and information on child-care, hygiene, nutrition and how to obtain support. Lifeline radios play an important role in easing the loneliness of child families affected by HIV/Aids, and the isolation of others living in remote areas. Local and international new programmes are broadcast in the local language, Kinyarwanda, and help the children feel connected to other communities. More than 75% of child families are headed by a girl and only one in 17 children go to school.
Ndayambaje, who lives with his two younger brothers in Ntebe village, in Musanze district in the north near Uganda, told Care: “I’m happy to have received this radio. It allows me to connect with the whole world. I follow all the programmes that are broadcast worldwide. In our neighbourhood, no one had a radio before. Now all the young people come to listen to the radio programmes with me.”
Marie Chantal Nyirajuru is a young girl who lives alone in a tiny one room mud and thatch house in the village of Murandi, also in Musanze district. “I am no longer alone. The neighbours come to listen to the radio programmes, especially the dramas on HIV/Aids and reproductive health of adolescents. Every time I wake up at night I always think of bad memories, especially the death of my parents and the misery in which I live. I will always listen to the radio and then I’ll no longer have time to think of these bad memories.”
According to the government of Rwanda, there are 101,000 child-led households in Rwanda. In the past four years, the Freeplay Foundation has provided more than 13,000 Lifeline radios, reaching an estimated 26,000 children and young people.
Our Child-headed Household Initiative and the Freeplay Foundation’s CEO were featured in CNN International’s Principal Voices series in 2007. You can watch the documentary online by following the link below.
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