Delivering Meaningful Audio Content to Underserved Populations; with Kristine Pearson
Access to radio and digital audio content is something many of us take for granted. Kristine, and her organization, Lifeline Energy, are bringing this technology to the people who need it most. They’re providing access to education, health, agriculture and emergency response content to communities mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.
Kristine shares her journey from corporate career to leading Lifeline Energy for the past 21 years. In the interview below she talks about what she’s learned along the way and her advice for fellow social entrepreneurs.
Tell me more about your organization and the work that you do.
Lifeline Energy has been in existence for 21 years and we design, manufacture, and distribute solar and wind up media players and radios for mass education and emergency response.
That’s evolved considerably over this time. We pioneered the human energy or the wind-up space, which also then included solar energy and always for group listening. Then as technology advanced, we created the world’s first MP3 player, radio and recorder for the humanitarian sector. The majority of what we do now has the MP3 capability, which means you can add dozens of hours of content, books on tape, whatever you like. People can record their own voices and they can record a radio program so you never have to miss anything. Also, in emergencies like floods or typhoons, people still want to listen to a trusted radio broadcast. It remains very popular.
Now our focus is increasingly going to be a new start-up called Radio Voice Bank. It will be an online platform, as video is to YouTube, Radio Voice Bank will be to audio. It will be a repository, an online searchable library of local language audio content.
If you look at the COVID current crisis, that would mean that people anywhere would be able to access content in their own language. That means that we can then unarchive hundreds of thousands of hours of content that’s already been aired, accommodate for people who want content replayed, and offer channels to topic experts. We could have people with expertise in Coronavirus recording content in hundreds of languages to reach the very last billion. Although there’s so much focus on content these days, there’s relatively little content for the markets or the people that we’re talking about.
How did you get started with this career track, or come up with this idea?
The idea for wind-up radios wasn’t mine. I was an executive with a banking group in Johannesburg and was on sabbatical. At the time, I was asked if I wanted to head this new charitable entity to deliver the radios to people who need them the most, but could afford them the least. So I said I’ll do it for three months, as a favor. I was spectacularly unqualified, I had no background in radio. I was well-traveled in Africa, but I had no background in the non-profit sector either. My experience was corporate, and this was a helpful skill set that worked well for things that were practical logistics and manufacturing, etc.
I have always had a real interest in rural women and rural populations, so it was a wonderful opportunity for me to blend my private interests with my professional capabilities. Those three months turned into 21 years and three months.
Was someone else running it before that or was it new?
My husband co-founded the commercial company that created the wind-up technology and manufactured the first model wind-up radio. They wanted to be able to get the technology to people who needed it. It never occurred to me that it would be something I would want to do, because I couldn’t imagine not working in the corporate sector. I was asked if I wanted to get it up and going and because I was on sabbatical, I had the time. I agreed to do it for only three months. It was a great move; it’s been a great career.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned throughout this journey so far?
That being poor has nothing to do with intelligence. That being poor has nothing to do with very much other than you don’t have the same economic and educational opportunities, and that rural women are extraordinary. I’ve been to 34 African countries. I’ve never had a bad thing happen to me. It’s been a massive learning curve and as a result, my worldview has completely altered.
What advice and you give to other social entrepreneurs?
Every chance you have, you always have to pay forward. One thing that I don’t really like about the space is that there are a lot of “hero types” who can be very self-promoting. If that’s why you’ve gone into this sector, then you’re misguided and misdirected in your values. You can only really make sustained, genuine, long-term change by collaboration through systems change with large groups pointing in the same direction. I’m part of a new group now, a new social movement of social entrepreneurs and other social innovators called Catalyst 2030. Those kinds of principles are at the absolute foundation.
These are people that are generally later stage social entrepreneurs. We’ve got some young voices, there are other social innovators and academics, coming together to systemically look at the SDGs and to create real deep and meaningful change, and the achievement of those goals through genuine cooperation, collaboration.
Social entrepreneurship itself is actually quite lonely. I had no one to take me under their wing and teach me. Although I had a highly experienced board, they didn’t mentor me. I learned by trial, error and guessing. I had a blank canvas, but that suited my personality.
What’s your vision for the future, either for your organization or for the world or for both?
My vision is Radio Voice Bank — combined with ways for people to be able to access content, whether it’s radio, smart phones or feature phones. The reality is that much of the world is still un-accessed and limited to quality, meaningful content. People can start to change their own outcomes. People will start to make better choices and decisions. Many major life decisions are made by the poor based on guesswork. They just don’t have the information they need, so they make the best guess they can. Then they end up often making mistakes.
My vision is that poverty is eradicated, or greatly mitigated. And that lasting and positive, powerful ways are introduced that provide equality for women, that upgrade skills and education, and health options and opportunities.
There’s a much greater consciousness for the environment from this current situation. I think there are enormous opportunities. For the first time in ages people can see the sky in China, wildlife now are wandering in places they wouldn’t have been able to go due to poaching. There are positive happenings when you look at atmospheric maps and dissipating pollution. There are no wildfires anywhere in the world right now.
I believe there’s so much that we can learn from this crisis. I think this is going to dramatically change the philanthropic and investment landscapes, at least I hope it does. It doesn’t matter whether you’re rich or poor, you can get sick. Chances are if you have money, you’re going to get better treatment, but this disease is not discriminating.
What action do you want readers to take?
You have to educate yourself. The world is not a scary place unless you want to see it like that. I’ve been to 102 countries, many places on my own. I’m sensible, I’m well-read before I go somewhere. I trust that the laws of hospitality will protect me. I still have people say to me when I go to Rwanda, “Aren’t you afraid?” I’m like, “Well, the genocide was a 26 years ago now.” And you can walk around Kigali at night, nothing will happen to you. There’s many misperceptions about the world and particularly about Africa.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I’m fascinated by what is going on right now. I think that solutions to many of the problems that we’re facing are going to be tackled by experienced social innovators. It’s not going to be the UN. It’s not going to be the big NGOs, because their track record is just too mixed. When you look at the results that social entrepreneurs have achieved on their own, it’s extraordinary. I can only imagine the results if we work together.
Find Kristine Online
Lifeline Energy: https://www.lifelineenergy.org
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristine-pearson-6ba2b65
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