For Rwanda's Coffee Farmers, Radios Can Save Lives

Michelle, Emily, and I just completed our two-month Empower internship at the Freeplay Foundation, a London-based NGO that distributes solar-powered Lifeline radios to some of the most vulnerable populations in sub-Saharan Africa.

While the Freeplay Foundation distributes its radios in 14 countries, I was particularly impressed by their Coffee Lifeline project that provides Rwandan coffee farmers with radio access. Coffee Lifeline demonstrates just how much of a positive impact information access can have on poor communities.

A coffee farmer listening to her radio while harvesting coffee

While coffee farming represents more than half of the Rwanda’s export income, many of Rwanda’s 500,000 farmers live in poverty because they are unable to access information needed to best grow their crops, including weather reports, news on farming techniques, and the world market price for coffee. Without the necessary information to produce better coffee, farmers cannot afford to feed their families or send their children to school.

A group of farmers listening to a coffee-washing lesson on the radio

Through the Coffee Lifeline project that distributes radios to farmers, today more than 35,000 Rwandan farmers have radio access and can tune into Imbere Heza, a radio program co-created by the Freeplay Foundation. Each month, more than 200,000 coffee farmers tune into the program to listen to important information, including the daily market price for coffee, how to harvest better quality coffee, how to join coffee cooperatives, and health lessons for their families. Thanks to Imbere Heza, many farming communities that once suffered are now prospering. They are able to harvest better quality coffee and sell it at a better price.

While Coffee Lifeline is just one project, it illustrates how far information access can go in helping improve the quality of life for the poor. In the future, the Freeplay Foundation hopes to expand the Coffee Lifeline model into other coffee growing countries in the world.