Earlier this year Amnesty supporters helped to fund 4,000 radios for communities in remote areas of Burma. The many thank you messages included in the film above are moving testimonies to the impact of your generosity. But they also serve as powerful reminders that we need to do more.
We are delighted by the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and take seriously her call for freedom of expression. With your help we are hoping to raise enough money to send another 10,000 radios into Burma and help even the most remote communities access information outside of state control.
Amazingly you have already bought over a thousand radios, and thanks to our generous friends at the Co-op that means double that will be going into Burma. Please help us reach our target of 10,000 radios by buying one today.
If you’d prefer to donate by text, you can buy a radio for £10 (excludes batteries)*. Just send ‘Radio5′ to 70700.
The recent election in Burma has done nothing to improve people’s rights – the government continues to attempt to control everything people watch, read and hear. Aung San Suu Kyi’s release, given so much media attention in the UK, is unlikely to have received as much coverage in her own country.
A radio is one of the few tools that can help cut through the censorship by enabling people to get independent information, outside of state control, on stations including Democratic Voice of Burma, BBC World Service, Voice of American and Radio Free Asia. But few people in Burma can afford a radio. You can change that. Please buy a radio today and help break the silence for hundreds of communities across Burma.
Already bought a radio? Please help us spread the word!
*Text donations: Due to provider regulations £10 is the maximum that can be donated by SMS. Texts costs £10 + standard network charge. This is billed as two £5 messages, one immediately, the other a day later. Amnesty International receives at least £8.90. Please obtain bill payer’s permission. Customer care 0844 847 9800. Charity No. 1051681.
Why can we not pay via PayPal?
The amount of information required on this form has deterred me from buying a radio.
Is it all really essential?
Why do you need my Date of Birth for example?
Great project – great work AI. I would echo ABL’s comments about PayPal and info required though.
wouldn’t it be better to provide wind-up radio’s?
I agree with both kevaquarian and ABL. It’s a great project, and I’d really like to contribute but will not be doing so because of the requirement to give my date of birth. You’re the only charity I support that has this requirement. You don’t NEED this information and I shan’t be making any donations online until you remove it.
A pity – I was going to buy 4 radios.
Best wishes anyway.
JB
Sorry, please explain why you need my date of birth? I don’t usually give this online and don’t understand why you are asking for it as it doesn’t affect my card details.
Done – fantastic project and so worthwhile! Easy form to fill in and not at all worried about giving d.o.b – what’s the prob? Echo the comments about wind-up radios tho’ – wouldn’t that be better in the long run? Anyway, small issue – the main thing is to help these people!
I too am wondering about the dob. Can you explain? Then of course I will join in. We are waiting for a reply. What’s stopping you?
The info here and in the video does not answer the obvious question: what can the Burmese people listen to on the radio? Is it all state propaganda or are there opposition stations operating from across the border? I have bought a radio, but in order to feel it was worthwhile, I would like an answer to this very obvious question please.
When asked to give my DOB in circumstances where I don’t want to and can’t see why it’s being asked, I usually just make one up and ensure that the year of birth makes me over 18.
I see at the bottom of the Amnesty supporters email that under 18s aren’t ‘allowed’ to buy a radio in this campaign, so maybe that’s why Amnesty is asking for dates of birth.
However, I agree with the other commenters that Amnesty needs to answer these queries – and quickly!! It would be a great shame if lots of people get put off donating. Meanwhile I’m waiting too (and not donating yet!)
I’ve donated a radio, and can’t really see that it’s any more fuss to fill in the forms than to use PayPal (although I would prefer PayPal!) Agree about the wind-ups — but maybe they’re more expensive? Also wondered about the young Burmese who appeared in the video — isn’t this dangerous for them?
Regarding the DOB : I can’t see why it’s needed either, but you can always tell a fib!
Right, to answer some questions:
1. Paypal – unfortunately we are yet to have a cost effective way of implementing PayPal payments, however it is something we’re working on for future and for an easy way to give right now, would encourage you to use our text donation service instead.
2. On the subject of requiring a date of birth, as Jenny has pointed out above, there are legal requirements that charities operate under in which under 18s should not be asked to donate. As such at Amnesty UK we operate a data policy where we require a date of birth so we know who we can and can’t talk to about donating. Hope that makes sense to you all.
3. As for J’s question about what people in Burma can receive on their radios – there are numerous radio stations transmitting into Burma, in a number of different dialects spoken locally, so there is a good chance that the people receiving radios will have access to information outside of the control of the Burmese government.
Hope this is helpful, will try to answer anymore questions as they arise
Thank you Amnesty for giving me the opportunity to buy a radio for Burma. Without AI I’m not sure how I could try and make a difference to the situation in Burma. Therefore please keep up the excellent work AI. I think wind-up radios are a fantastic idea and I have no concerns at all about providing my dob. Best wishes.
Thank you Fiona for answering the questions about PayPal and about the date of birth issue.
It might be worth adding an explanatory note about why DOB is essential to the form itself (e.g. this information is required to comply with charity regulations that prohibit asking under 18s for donations). I wasn’t aware of this regulation and expect others won’t be either and it is clearly putting people off…
Best wishes
Jenny
Thank you for the answers to some of the questions – I would also have preferred to donate a wind-up radio, and would like to know why you chose a battery-powered radio.
Also wondering about wind-up radios, or solar powered ones?
Do the Burmese authorities let people have radios that pick up more than government radio networks? Hoping they can access more than state radio station broadcasts…
My concern is that batteries will need to be replaced. Many people can ill afford replacements and access to batteries might be difficult. Nor are they friendly to the environment, by the way, when discarded. If the authorities get to know of this newly acquired people power then militia could be used to intimidate those who buy batteries and put communities at risk. Did Amnesty International investigate wind up (or combined wind up / solar panel) units that have more than one way to work and will also work while recharging? I am most reluctant to add risk to the lives of people where they cannot hide their source of information. We too have a right to know.
Happy to contribute to wind up / solar powered radios. But battery operated? Is this the best option for the people of Burma? WR
The price of £12.50 is very high regarding similar projects with to wind up and/or solar powered radios. As you seem to buy loads of radios you do have quite a bargaining power towards the supplier, why this price then? Would please name the model and make of the radio and break down the costs in detail? And please explain why you only provide battery powered radios.
Whereas I agree with the comments regarding wind up powered radios, I certainly wouldn’t quibble regarding the price. I would imagine the actual cost of the radio is only a fraction of the cost of actually getting them into the hands of Burmese people. I applaud the people on the ground that will make this happen.
DOB – Please don’t be put off, just make up a date, I put 01/01/1970 with no problem! I also ticked the ‘gift aid’ box (which AI campaigns often don’t have), so my money goes even further with help from the taxman. This is a brilliant campaign!
I have great joy from my new radio. I feel born again with it. Beloved Radio 4. I have no hesitation in stating that I am 65.
I will certainly buy one. What a great idea. I have such freedom.
i’d be happy to buy a wind-up or solar powered radio (but not a battery operated one), except for the fact that your form (all your forms?) require people to have at least two names, and i only have the one
I’m shocked at how many people are questioning everything.
1. D.o.b. so what!
2. The radios are of course going to be picking up exiled radio stations. Do you really think amnesty would go to all this effort to spread propaganda radio.
3. Questioning the cost and model etc. Why? You guys need to trust amnesty and be confident that they would have researched the most effective method. Solar
Power radios would require a solar cell to charge, which would be easily spotted by army forces. And wind up’s… has anyone heard how noisy they are when charging.. again a dead give away. Battery operated is silent and most likely will have an ear piece to keep noise levels down.
Please just support the campaign or not. Stop the arrogant, dim questioning of an organisation with years of campaigning experience.
Tom Brady
England
Tom,
I agree with you about the need to trust Amnesty, but is it necessary to hector people as your post did? For a moment I thought I was reading Comment is Free on the Guardian website.
I think it’s healthy for potential donors to be able to ask questions and for Amnesty to answer them – and that it should all be possible without insulting people.
I agree with Tom Brady. Amnesty has years of experience and lots of expertise in how to cope with tyrranies. If you respect a charity, why try to second guess?
DOB is, perhaps, unnecessary though! Why not just a box to tick “Over 18″? That’s what some other organisations do. Not that I mind personally.
Great campaign. My family are getting radios by proxy for Christmas.
I cannot believe that some people on here have chosen to put themselves above people who need help. What exactly is the problem with giving your date of birth? What evil and nasty things are you expecting amnesty international to do with it?
D.O.B can easily be faked. How many people do you think have gone to work for Amnesty in the hope of stealing other people’s information? Get over yourselves and actually help people!
Billy,
Maybe you missed my earlier post? (see above 10.03am)
Thanks Tom for answering some of the questions, just to add two things:
1. Apologies for not being clear about the stations the radios will be able to pick up. It was an oversight on our part and I will add a line in the blog post in a minute just to make it clear. Although the Burmese government control media within the country, there are a number of courageous individuals who work to overcome this censorship by broadcasting in exile. At the moment radios are completely safe and legal to own in Burma so the communities receiving our radios will be able to pick up many stations including:
Voice of America
Radio Free Asia
BBC World Service
Democratic Voice of Burma
All are stations outside of state control, broadcast in Burmese dialects.
2. Just to add to what Tom explained about the type of radios we are buying. He is right that wind up and solar powered radios would be too conspicuous, not just for those we are giving them to but also to our partners on the ground. The type of radio you are buying was recommended by these community based organisations and they will be sourcing them locally. They have identified the most suitable radios and the cost per unit covers everything involved in supplying and delivering the radios (including batteries) as estimated by them.
Hope this is helpful, we’ll keep trying to answer any new questions as they come up.
hi I would like to share this on Facebook, would help if there was a facility to do this. Extra publicity and hopefully extra money – for free. Liz
Hi. This dialogue was brought to my attention by one of our supporters. I head Lifeline Energy (formerly Freeplay Foundation) which created and distributed 215,000 iconic solar and wind-up Lifeline radios – which would be too big and conspicuous . We have just come out with a quality pocket sized solar and wind-up radio (with a cell phone charger) which is very reasonably priced and local organisations would not know about this option, but we’d be delighted to discuss. From years of doing this work, I seriously caution the sustainability of battery operated radios – in addition to the huge number toxic batteries tossed into the environment. Even if quality batteries are initially supplied, what can be bought locally are poor quality toxic batteries which need to be replaced often. 10,000 radios would add hundreds of thousands of batteries into an already fragile environment each year. Kristine
Just to add to the comments from Kristine, besides the enviromental impact there is also the question of cost and availability of batteries in remote regions where incomes are low and they cannot just pop out to the nearest supermarket for another set of batteries.
But come on folks, the priority is to get on with helping these people, not bickering about which is the best way to pay, whether or not you should give your d.o.b. or if they should use batteries, solar cells or chicken droppings to power their radios (now there’s a thought).
Look forward to hearing what comes of the Lifeline energy offer. Holding off from donating. Sustainable energy source seems to be crucial.
Thanks for this information Kristine – please do send a link to the pocket sized solar and wind-up radio (I couldn’t find it on your website, sorry!).
Right now the groups we’re working with who are entering Burma are deciding on the most appropriate radios for the people they’re distributing them to in each case. These are purchased in the region from trusted and verified sources and not shipped from the UK.
As we have stated before, and I am sure you appreciate, the safety and security of our partners purchasing and distributing the radios is paramount. They have told us that it would be highly impractical and far too conspicuous to source thousands of wind-up radios at this stage but we do and will keep this under review as we develop this project so please do send on this information to us.
WOULD IT NOT BE BETTER TO GIVE OUT MOBILE PHONES AND TELL BURMESE WHERE THEY CAN BUY BATTERIES OR READY PAID CARDS ?
THEN THE PEOPLE CAN COMMUNICATE WITH ONE ANOTHER AND PLAN ACTION WITHOUT GATHERING INTO GROUPS
THEY COULD ALSO DOWNLOAD INFORMATION FROM COMPUTERS-NEWS, WEB SITES ETC
RECIEVE INSRRUCTIONS/ASSISTANCE-GIVE INSTRUCTIONS/ASSISTANCE
PAM COUGHLAN
Come on Amnesty, wake up, get organised, get PAYPAL.Inspires confidence in giving.
Hi Liz,
Thanks very much for your comment – and for helping us spread the word! We’ve added a tool at the bottom of the blog post that will make it easy for you.
Just wanted to say I fully support this campaign and thanks to Amnesty for doing a brilliant job.
I understand people’s concerns about battery v solar/wind up and I care about the environment, but I feel in this situation I would rather put a radio in the hands of an oppresssed people. I trust Amnesty to have weighed up all the pro’s and con’s. It makes sense to me to use local community based organisations and they will know what the needs of the people are better than us. If it would put their lives even more at risk to buy 4,000 or so solar radio’s then I’m happy with their decision.
Jeez you lot of musers and wingers would never get anything done! Buy a radio now and ask questions later! I agree with your musings about batteries etc but if you haven’t worked out by now that a) you can put in any old date of birth over 18 years old if your worried about your privacy, and b) Amnesty International are not some new and disorganised mini charity! They will have thought this through and the price includes distribution. I am skint but I still just bought a radio. Get over yourselfs and try and remember this is a charity about others – its not all about you demanding your rights as a blimmin ‘customer’!
I think it’s ironic that people asking relatively intelligent and reasonable questions are being heckled on an Amnesty website of all places. The ability to question a particular decision, or ask for more information of any organisation wishing to promote change is I would have thought a luxury we here posting have that we should like to protect…
I’d suggest adding a FAQ to the bottom of the post using the material in Fiona and Berry’s posts. I’ve had the time to read to the bottom of this discussion and will now donate a radio as my concerns have been answered in a professional manner by Amnesty staff. Others, who may not have had time, or closed the window / or tab having meant to go back to it later may not and the opportunity for a donation will have been missed.
Dear Russ Elias
Amnesty answered the question about why it’s not currently possible to donate using Pay Pal yesterday afternoon (see post from Fiona McLaren of Amnesty at 5.31pm on 15 November).
She explained that it’s not currently cost-effective for Amnesty to do this but that they’re working on it for the future. That’s good enough for me!
It’s disapointing that the payment page keeps timing out after the secure verification. I have no idea whether my donation has been accepted or not, and will have to wait 2 days to find out if funds have been taken properly before I donate again.
We all want the people of Burma to have freedom of information. However, many of us also want Amnesty to be careful as well as kind. If I was a subject I would prefer to have a receiver with its own power supply so I wasn’t forced to travel (possibly some distance, probably rather too often and always assuming I had money) to a battery seller where a surge in popular demand could alert government informers to a pattern of behaviour that might be perceived as a threat to their control. This is not a matter of meanness: I have been donating to Amnesty for years and I’ve also had a wind-up radio for years. When you think of the potential association with sustainability batteries are not the right way to go green. I urge you to think again, Amnesty SE
Great campaign…. also excellent for a top up on teenage Xmas pressents I’ve found.
Easy quick form… JUST ALTER THAT DOB GUYS…. DOH… probably helps AI understand its market. Please don’t let that put you off. It’s the Burmise people that count here….
Yup agree…. Please Amnesty add PAYPAL to all as an option…. Keep up the fantastic work you all do. Loz and Lilwolf
HMMMMM…… Just been thinking on these comments….
How they gonna be buying replacement batteries….. Even Duracell don’t last like they ought….believe!!!
A streetsleeping friend has a windup radio, and he’s had this thing for years. Yes surely that is the best choice…. green and economical to use. However a radio in any shape or form is undoubtedly better than not having means to listen to what is happening in and around your own lands.
Rowan -reasonable questions -yes, but the same ones again & again? I like your idea of a FAQ.
I hope very much that local companies can produce ‘green’ radios as a better option for AI to SAFELY access soon -the people who are distributing these are very likely doing so at a horrific risk, & I wouldn’t want to add to it.
Loz, I would be asking Paypal to reduce their rip-off rates to charities, not AI to doff the cap at PP.
I think this is a very interesting project. My only concern is that empowering disparate rural communities through means of information will not contribute to ending the junta’s reign. Rather, it will potentially put vulnerable people in the firing line. The junta believe it is their karmic destiny to rule the roost. That’s a hard mindset to shift; i suspect they’ll die before they give up on it…
It’s a noble effort, I only hope it doesn’t do more harm than good…
addendum to the above.
I think for this project to benefit the people it purports to help, Amnesty must research the state in great detail and provide us with sufficient theoretical findings for why distributing radios would be a good thing. If this has already been done, it would be useful for Amnesty to provide us with their findings. I appreciate that academia and populism do not go hand in hand, but if this is a good idea it must be backed up with sufficient data. Call me a sourpuss but no one will be smiling should their donation end up causing entire villages to disappear of the face of the earth…
Sent the £5 Text only to discover I was charged twice leaving me with 20p credit on my PAYG for the rest of the week (urgh). I hope this means two radios will be sent and not a £5 credit to the coffers of the Text administrators.
The text price is £10, but it is taken in two chunks of £5 because of the network operators rules. It does say it costs £10 in the blog post.
Thanks for the correcting my misunderstanding Kevin.
To Jonny Edwards and others
It’s interesting isn’t it that when donations are generic, people give to an organisation because they trust the organisation and support its aims – donors seem broadly happy to trust that the organisation knows what it is doing and leave it to get on with it.
However when the donation is linked to a specific item (like the radios in this case), people start questioning the finer details of the campaign and suggesting that perhaps the organisation hasn’t done its research properly/hasn’t thought through the implications of the campaign/doesn’t know the area/needs to give chapter and verse to donors to demonstrate in detail the evidence base for its campaigns.
I wonder if Oxfam’s goats campaign faces the same information demands from potential donors.
I’m not an expert in international human rights violations and I trust that Amnesty knows far more than I do. I trust that they have the local knowledge and have done the necessary background research before launching a campaign.
I don’t expect or want them to spend time and resources providing potential donors with detailed academic evidence to support each campaign- particularly when there may be very good reasons for not disclosing all of their intelligence.
Great campaign but regarding the date of birth issue – why not just have an, I Am Over 18 tick box?
Hi everyone, it is great to see so many people getting involved in the campaign. There seems to be a number of recurring questions so we have put together an FAQ with more information. You can download it as a pdf here – http://amn.st/bDkAPG
Regarding the layout of the payment form (and the date of birth, over/under 18 tick box in particular), we don’t think it is good enough at the moment which is why we are working very hard to make it more user friendly. But these things take time so please bear with us. Thanks for your comments.
Greetings
I am in awe that people give their FREE time to help others they don’t even know.
What a fantastic example to set!!
Lets ALL not forget .. over thinking about these things doesn’t help. We end up being distracted by the million ways of distraction these days …
When I see a charitable act, no matter how small, I am usually rooted to the spot.
It charges my battery no end, gives me hope and shows I’m not alone.
Thanks to ALL Amnesty volunteers and to you my unknown friends for being here!
Anybody having trouble in making a payment by card.
On Accept, the computer goes down. Either I have now bought two extra ones!!! or I have not bought any. Will have to bank check… Thought it was my computer but noticed in an earlier post somebody had the same issue.
Loz
I’d prefer NOT to pay by Paypal as the commission is too high, I’d rather the money was used more effectively. The DOB thing is a minor issue – if you’re donating to Amnesty, Big Brother knows all about you anyway.. If not happy about it just make one up..
I don’t understand how to donate by text, can this be explained please ? And why is it cheaper ?
A few points about radio types: 1. Wind-ups mostly don’t last – sorry Freeplay but I had 2 different models and they are not solidly built, if they were they would have to cost a lot more. 2. Think of the noise you make winding them up – it would be a dead giveaway that you had an Amnesty radio !
3. A small radio with headphones makes much more effective use of batteries, and would be much easier to conceal.
Great idea. Agree re date of birth question though. It nearly put me off – simply because I don’t see why it should be needed other than possibly for marketing reasons, which would – well – put me off in principle! Do think about removing it asap as you’ll raise more money.
I’m going to weigh in again here. It would be inappropriate for me to second guess another organisation’s decisions, as they would have come to a sound collective decision about their campaign with their on-the-ground partners – with the available information they had.
For 12 years I’ve been distributing solar/wind-up radios to vulnerable and displaced populations, but have not worked in Burma. It would stand to reason that I would have strong opinions based on experience. In my opinion battery operated radios are not sustainable and create huge toxic battery dependency (remember, poor quality cheap batteries are what locals can afford) and are expensive for the poor given how little they earn and how often they have to be replaced. (I have African figures, but not in Burma.)
People in the UK familiar with the ‘wind-up radio’ and even Lifeline Energy’s Lifeline, Prime and Lifeplayers are presuming that they are large (and the .pdf assumes this, too), and they are because they are engineered for group listening and to last for years in harsh climates, which they do. Lifeline does not sell radios commercially and they are only found in development initiatives.
Lifeline Energy no longer has any association with Freeplay (it has gone into administration under its new ownership) and we are creating our own products, one of which is a robust pocket-sized FM-SW (and SW is critical for international broadcasts), has in integrated solar panel plus a wind-up as a back-up, a bright LED light and a cell phone charging option. It is not found on our website (www.lifelineenergy.org) because we have not launched it yet, but it will be available as early as December, I believe. We’ve created it principally for disaster response. It will be reasonably priced, will be made available for sale locally (we work mainly in Africa) not just via donations, and it is one of suite of renewable energy items being designed for local women to earn income by selling them, but it is more expensive than a dry cell radio.
I would welcome taking this discussion further with anyone from Amnesty and please feel free to contact me via my email provided.
Kind regards, Kristine Pearson, CEO, Lifeline Energy
Hi Tom Foxe
Your questions about donating by text are answered in the Amnesty FAQs document which is part of the post from Sam Sam of Amnesty yesterday afternoon (17 Nov at 4.28pm) – basically it’s two texts charged at £5 each. It’s less than donating online because provider restrictions limit donations like this to a maximum of £10, but it does mean that you are only covering the cost of the radio and not the batteries.
As the FAQs document states, Amnesty gets about £8.90 from this method and they would prefer people to donate £12.50 online if possible (which for me worked fine although it looks from this blog that there have been some glitches).
Best wishes
I’m going to weigh in again here. It would be inappropriate for me to second guess another organisation, as they would have come to a collective decision about their campaign with their on-the-ground partners – with the available information they had. For 12 years I’ve been distributing solar/wind-up radios to vulnerable and displaced populations, but have not worked in Burma. It would stand to reason that I would have strong opinions based on experience. Battery operated radios are not sustainable. ra
just a short intrusion To address Kristine Pearson, CEO of Lifeline Energy,I understand the position of amnesty on your solar panel radio’s would attract too much attention (jackdaw).Unless you flood burma with these radio’s. batteries seems to FIT without drawing attention.
The FAQ sheet answers most of the questions but can you advise what independent (non-Burmese government) broadcasts would be receivable by the radios? Nonetheless in trust I have donated for two radios. It’s good to see Amnesty making an inpact through direct action of this kind.
I realy like this angle that you have on the topic. Certainly wasn’t thinking on this at the time I started searching for tips. Your ideas were totally easy to get. Happy to find that there’s an person online that gets it precise what its is talking about.