From the Freeplay Foundation

Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, are continuing their strong support of the Freeplay Foundation. The Hanks most recent gift is funding 500 Lifeline radios for use in our Rwanda programmes.

Most of the Lifeline radios are being distributed to orphaned children in Rwanda. UNICEF estimates that more than 800,000 children currently are orphaned in Rwanda, most due to Aids and thousands more from the 1994 genocide. Since 2000, the Freeplay Foundation's Child Headed Household (CHH) project has worked to alleviate their plight. As the oldest of the Foundation's programmes, CHH's goal is to provide each of the 101,000 child led households with a Lifeline radio. These children, some as young as nine years old, care for their younger siblings in abject poverty and isolation. Many children don't even have basic life skills which their parents would normally teach them, and most are unable to attend school. Instead, they eke out an existence by subsistence farming or herding animals and doing chores for people who sometimes exploit them.

It is the Child Headed Household project that gave the Freeplay Lifeline radio its name. The radio provides the orphans a lifeline to grab onto, offering critical information and a trusted adult voice. The children learn practical information about issues such as animal care, clean water, farming techniques, health care, disease prevention and security.

Some of the radios are being distributed to coffee farmers in Rwanda in support of our Coffee Lifeline project. The 1994 genocide almost destroyed Rwanda's coffee industry. Today, half a million Rwandan farmers are making great strides in revitalising their coffee crops for the global specialty coffee market. However, middlemen called "coyotes" hamper the farmers' efforts by withholding vital industry information. Coffee Lifeline provides market transparency by enabling coffee farmers to hear the correct price of coffee beans, new farming techniques and weather bulletins.

Tom Hanks has served as the Freeplay Foundation's American Ambassador since 2003. In addition to winning the Best Actor Academy Award twice, he is widely considered the most beloved of all American entertainers today. Mr Hanks currently is filming The Great Buck Howard with John Malkovich and his son, Colin Hanks. A well known advocate of renewable energy, Tom Hanks believes the Lifeline radio can change the world one person, one house, one village at a time.