Project Report
| Oct 18, 2011
One day - One donation - Double the impact
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Tomorrow – Wednesday 19 October – all donations up to $1000 made to GlobalGiving will be matched. Please help us to provide solar and wind-up radios for Somali women and children in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camps. Donate and four Prime radios could be donated in your name and you could be featured on Lifeline Energy’s website.
In 2007 Zheinab – a Somali mother living in the Dadaab refugee camps – forced her 10-year old daughter to get circumcised. Two years later, the mother and her husband went against tradition and refused to allow their two younger daughters to undergo the controversial procedure. What changed? Zheinab received a Lifeline Energy solar and wind-up radio and was able to listen to radio programmes educating her on female genital mutilation (FGM) and its dangers.
Zheinab now knows about the medical complications FGM often causes and that Islamic religious leaders do not encourage the practice. It was a bold decision by Zheinab and her husband, given that almost 78% of Somalis in the Dadaab refugee camps submit their daughters to circumcision and that most Somali men refuse to marry women who are uncircumcised.
The young mother's story demonstrates the power and effective messaging of the radio programmess. It not only changed her thinking, but she was able to relay that information to her husband.
Our solar and wind-up Prime radios pick up radio broadcasts from the BBC’s Somali service and local Star FM on childcare, nutrition, health, FGM, in addition to news about events unfolding in Somalia and Kenya. Effective radio-based primary education lessons are also being broadcast in the Somali and Swahili languages.
Radio remains the most popular source of information for refugees. A
recent report by Internews indicates that more than 70% of new refugees lack any information on how to register for aid, locate missing family members, access health and shelter. The Dadaab camps receive roughly 1,300 new refugees daily - at least 800 of whom are children. The situation is critical. There are more than 450,000 mostly Somali refugees living in Dadaab with very limited access to crucial information.
Tomorrow take the opportunity to donate and reach even more women and girls. Once you’ve donated why not tell your friends about it? Share on
Facebook and
Twitter, adding the search hashtag #radios4Somaliwomen. Also, in a lucky draw Lifeline Energy will donate four Prime radios in the name of one donor, as well as featuring the person on our website!
Let’s help inform, educate and provide a better future for Somali women and girls.
Matching is between 12:01am and 11:59pm EDT (GMT-4). Please click on the following link and donate:
Thank you in advance for your support.
The Lifeline Energy Team
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