Title:
Group Offers Shortwave Radios to Poor Communities
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Technology Report.
See text below
Text:
A shortwave radio might seem like ancient technology
these days. But for some people, it remains their
only link to the wider world. Ears to Our World is
an organization based in the United States. It
provides shortwave radios to schools and communities
in some of the poorest areas of the world. The radio
is small, about the size of a book, and
self-powered. Users turn a crank. Winding it for two
minutes provides about forty minutes of listening
time.Ears to Our World is supported by private
donations and partners including Eton, the company
that makes the Eton Grundig radios. Thomas
Witherspoon started Ears to Our World in two
thousand eight.He said: "Our radios are going to
people who have no other source of international
news and information. It's hard for them to learn
new languages and be connected to the bigger world."
He said teachers use this information in the
classroom to help students learn about the world
around them. Ears to Our World works with local
organizations to get the radios to where they are
needed most. Mr. Witherspoon says the radios are now
in eleven communities, most of them in Africa. He
says many of these communities are unable to get
information any other way. He takes the radios to
parts of the world that lack access to the Internet
or to a national power grid of any kind. These
include communities and villages in South Sudan
where people do not have power in their homes.
Thomas Witherspoon says information is the most
important tool to improve the lives of poor people.
The self-powered radios are also useful in
emergencies. Teachers in Haiti used them to get
information after last year's earthquake. Mr.
Witherspoon says Ears to Our World has sent out
about one thousand two hundred radios. More than
half have gone to earthquake victims, mostly in
Haiti. About five hundred have gone to individual
teachers and schools.More recently, Ears to Our
World worked to bring the radios to children with
vision problems in Belize. He said: "Having a radio
that they can control and listen to, and search
around on, it just opens a world of information to
them."For VOA Special English, I'm Mario Ritter. You
can read and listen to all of our reports at
voaspecialenglish.com. You can also join us on
Facebook at VOA Learning English.
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personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
