As a Curriculum Associate at the Rising Academy Network (Rising Academies), an innovative network of schools in West Africa, Elsiemae Melanie Buckle has worked tirelessly during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure that students in Sierra Leone continue to have access to education despite the closure of schools due to lockdown measures. Working closely with the Teaching Service Commission in the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education of Sierra Leone on the planning and delivery of the country’s national distance learning response, Melanie personally recorded hundreds of hours of audio instruction and educational content to be broadcast over the radio, helping to enable more children across Sierra Leone to continue their education through distance learning. The success of Melanie’s work with the Teaching Service Commission contributed to the creation of Rising Academies’ Rising On Air distance learning solution, an initiative to provide open-source radio scripts, making them available online for free. Since its implementation, Rising On Air lessons have been adapted for use in over 25 countries in Africa and Asia and have reached more than 10 million students.