Founded in New Mexico in early 1979, the Self Reliance Foundation began as a one-man organization, helping underserved communities there. Armed with $15,000 of borrowed money, SRF founder Jeff Kline wanted to educate a widespread group of rural New Mexicans on better ways to use the produce and products they already had. Jeff created and showed a film, Sun Dried Foods, which not only explained how to effectively preserve vegetables, meats and wild herbs and fruits, but also encouraged local farmers to sell these high-value specialty products. That revenue gave farmers a way to maintain their land and lifestyles in the face of encroaching modernization. Jeff's messages worked, and the SRF began to grow.

Expanding SRF's use of educational media to help Hispanic and Native American populations in Northern New Mexico, we made sure to respect the strengths of local cultural identities, while encouraging folks to adopt small-scale technologies into their rural lifestyles. We stayed focused on topics like food preservation and solar technology. We disseminated our work through many forms of media and in many languages; then we added a vital element: we created in-school curricula for young people and publications for parents. This evolved into the social marketing strategy that remains the cornerstone of our work.

We quickly knew we had messages that would "speak to" larger audiences, and we needed a way to reach them. Recognizing that radio was an ideal and trusted medium within the Hispanic community, SRF founded the Hispanic Radio Network in 1982. Working closely with the Hispanic Radio Network (and other organizations), we perfected our unique, multi-pronged approach to reaching communities starved for information on health, education, science, the environment, social justice, public policy, and civic engagement in the United States. The Hispanic Radio Network soon evolved into the Hispanic Communications Network, a multi-media public relations and information company that allows our education campaigns to now reach an amazing 90% of the Hispanic population in the United States, Puerto Rico, Latin America, and regions of Spain.

We are always looking for chances to bring practical information to new groups, and although the bulk of our programs targets Hispanic populations, we have expanded our reach. For instance, our Mundo 2000 radio program offered callers from Patagonia to Alaska the chance to speak directly to health care experts, policy makers and even entertainers through a free 800 number. We also recently produced "Salaam Olam" (Peace in the World), an Arabic and Hebrew broadcast heard throughout Israel and Palestine, promoting co-existence and mutual respect in this troubled part of the region. We are currently running programs in the U.S., the Middle East and the Caribbean, always using our unique mix of education and outreach to improve the lives of our audiences-our friends--here and abroad.