South Africa has 11 official languages: Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, English, Northern Sotho, Tswana, Southern Sotho, Tsonga, Swazi, Venda, and Southern Ndebele (in order of first language speakers). You can support us by joining Audiopedia as a volunteer translator. Join now!

Hundreds of millions of women and girls are denied their right to education, effectively preventing their empowerment.

In fact, the number of illiterate women worldwide has not decreased in the last thirty years.

For the sake of justice, we have to right this wrong.

It is a requirement of fairness to make knowledge accessible to each and every woman, better today than tomorrow.

Therefore we have to free knowledge from literacy.

For the first time ever we have the technologies to do this. We can turn accessible audio learning into a global driving force for women’s empowerment and gender equality.

Knowledge is power, open know­ledge is empowerment. Let’s create a world where open know­ledge empowers every woman, everywhere.

We should provide a crowd-translation project with French as source language in order to facilitate translations into West African languages. Currently our source language is English only (see https://crowdin.com/project/uridu) . We would use the current translation of Audiopedia into French as starting point.

We are thinking about publishing all Audiopedia contents on SoundCloud to increase our reach. SoundCloud's key features include the ability to access uploaded files via unique URLs, thus allowing sound files to be embedded and shared on social networks. It also lets people comment on tracks, which will be great to get additional feedback.

We did a few tests and the think that it's worth it. SoundCloud could be an addition to our own Cloud and the Audiopedia App. You can find our profile on Soundcloud at https://soundcloud.com/audiopedia_org 

Now we just need to get a SoundCloud Pro Unlimited subscription and get things going ...

Using the Audiopedia approach we are able to provide health education even to remote and marginalized populations.

Take for example the Aka. They are a nomadic Mbenga pygmy people living as hunter-gatherers in the dense rainforests of the Western Congo Basin in Central Africa. The Aka people are vulnerable individually and as a community. They are geographically isolated, illiterate, have no written language and no access to social services. So how can we make sure that they can acquire vital health knowledge?

The answer is: with songs and our solar-powered Audiopedia player. Music is a key element of the social and spiritual life of the community. It forms an integral part of Aka rituals including ceremonies related to the inauguration of new encampments, hunting and funerals. That's why French anthropologist Romain Duda came up with the idea of inspiring songs that could be used for health sensitization.

One good example of his approach is "Musele - The Diarrhea Song". The song starts with the following line: "We are Bambenzele (Aka) from Minganga and Komo. My name is Lokombe Michel and now we're going to play our music to talk about diarrheal disease problems, because it's something that you need to avoid at all costs." It goes on with advice on how to prevent diarrhea ("You have to wash your hands. Drink clean, clear water.") and recommends local medicinal plants like stool wood (alstonia congensis) for treatment. The songs are performed and recorded in the field and later distributed together with additional information on our solar-powered Audiopedia players.

The "Radio Aka" project is lead by the Order of Malta France. The goal is not only to provide health education, but also to make the Aka aware of their indigenous rights. In order to inspire other organization to follow this idea, we have shared the complete contents of this project in our Audiopedia Cloud. We recommend to read through the project report first in order to get a better idea if the contents. You can access the project report directly by clicking here. 

The Aka have lost hundreds of their children every year due to diarrhea. For the first time ever we are able to change that. With the power of music and simple, yet innovative technology. 

How can you efficiently provide vital information to rural areas that have no electricity but a high rate of illiteracy? Our answer is: with a rugged, solar powered audio-player. This is why we developed the Audiopedia Player.

The Audiopedia Player contains more than 400 relevant questions and answers about health, nutrition, family planning, child care, work and more. The texts are recorded by a native speaker in the mother tongue of the women addressed. The Audiopedia Player was conceived for small group listening - it therefore fosters discussion, exchange and (self-help) group building. It's a tool for change.

We provide the Audiopedia Player free of charge to rural women with the help of local non-government organizations (NGOs), cooperatives and other agencies.

Since 2016 The Audiopedia Player has been used in several pilot projects in East and Central Africa.  It started with a pilot in Tanzania, involving the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. But the device was also used to provide accessible health information to the nomadic Aka hunter-gatherers in the rain forests of Central Africa. Currently the player is being used to support rural mental health self-help groups as part of a long-term project in Rwanda, funded by the German government.

By joining us you’re joining a global community of benevolent people that are supporting the smart way to help the poor. We need your help to spread the word about how easy it is to provide illiterate rural women with accessible health education and life skills using free, solar-powered MP3 Players.

Just sign up and we will tell you how to get started. It's 100% free!

Together we can make a difference!

Every 6 seconds a child under five dies. Most of these deaths are entirely preventable. We could save millions of lives by providing illiterate mothers in developing countries with accessible health education.

Audiopedia is a free resource of localized expert audio contents about health, nutrition, child care, family planning, agriculture and much more. Simple and cost-efficient technologies like solar-powered audio players allow the distribution of those vital contents even to remote areas without access to electricity.

Providing adequate health education to every woman is technologically feasible and economically viable. It's time to make it happen.