Lifeline Energy (formerly Freeplay Foundation) is a non-profit social enterprise that provides technology solutions[buzzword] for off-grid learning.
Lifeline Energy is a 501 (c) (3) US charity and a Section 18A and 21 South African public benefit organisation, and relies on contributions from individuals, family foundations, corporate funding and government-sponsored programmes.
The Times, a UK newspaper, selected Lifeline Energy (then known as Freeplay Foundation) as a beneficiary for its 2005/2006 Christmas Charity Appeal.
Over the years Lifeline Energy has implemented information and education projects using solar and wind-up radios in more than a dozen countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Donors have included Anglo American PLC, the Body Shop, Vodafone Group Foundation, Asda, NASDAQ, CARE, Vodacom, the Founders and Supporters of International Tom Hanks Day and the World Bank.
Gordon Roddick, co-founder and former chairman of The Body Shop International plc said in an interview with The Times, London "Radio is the perfect way of getting quality education to a wide area incredibly cheaply.
As with its Lifeplayer MP3, Lifeline Energy encapsulates known technologies (solar, battery, audio, radio, MP3) in products that are developed to meet the challenges of the environment and social contexts of their use.
In 2011, the Lifeplayer MP3 was launched in a project for farmers in Rwanda, in partnership with the multinational giant SC Johnson and a US-based NGO, Radio Lifeline.
Since then, it has been used in a number of initiatives, including school lessons for children, health information for women's listening groups, and conservation and farming skills for farmers.
It also features an LCD screen, a solar panel, a hand crank, and a DC input that can be plugged into either a wall socket or a car battery.
Research was conducted in rural and peri-urban slum areas of South Africa to determine how much child and grandmother-headed families spent on candles and kerosene for lighting per month.
Since 2007 Lifeline Energy has distributed more than 1,100 solar and wind-up radios in the Dadaab refugee camps and nearby host communities, benefitting more than 15,000 Somali women directly.
Waite recently stepped down as chairman of Lifeline Energy's UK Board of Trustees after nine years of service, but remains a patron.
Vilane fundraised for Lifeline radios by walking 1,113 kilometers (692 miles) to the South Pole, being the first black African to trek there.