As Thomas mentioned in his previous post, my name is Brian Viani and I am thrilled to be working with Nuru as the new Program Facilitator for Foundation Team 9 (FT9). I am originally from New York City and have a Master’s degree in International Relations from NYU and a Bachelor’s in Political Science from …
Nuru International’s work areas in Kenya and Ethiopia are rural agrarian communities in extreme poverty. These communities are vulnerable to risks and uncertainty in many facets of life. This blog recounts Nuru International’s strategy to bolster the resilience of farmers in these communities. Where Nuru works, farmers’ income is largely derived from small-scale rain-fed agriculture …
Financial sustainability is crucial to the Nuru Kenya Agriculture program’s ability to serve increasing numbers of farmers each year. The Agriculture team strives for this sustainability by making strategic staffing decisions, working efficiently and minimizing operational costs whenever possible. Another huge contributor to the Nuru Kenya Agriculture program’s sustainability is the collection of loan repayment from …
Every society has staple foods that embody its subsistence strategy. In agricultural societies, this suite of staple crops is determined by a variety of factors: dietary preference, environmental constraints and opportunities, economic development and political economy, and basic nutritional requirements for a functioning social system. The suite of crops that a society consumes embodies all …
Alex Martin graduated with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy and went on to lead infantry, reconnaissance and special operations units in multiple combat deployments. Upon leaving active duty, Alex started a private maritime security company that served commercial shipping interests in the Indian Ocean. In July 2013, Alex was given the opportunity to join the …
1. Microfinance Industry failing people living in poverty? Since the 1990s, there has been a great deal of hope and enthusiasm that the microfinance industry would help to bring millions out of poverty through provision of microcredit. However, the once hailed panacea for poverty alleviation has been under strict scrutiny for failing to achieve …
For the second straight year, Nuru’s Education team was faced with a long national teacher strike. Last year, the strike lasted nearly three weeks. This year the strike over pay closed schools for nearly one month. While these interruptions result in our team not being able to go to schools and teach, the time was …
I previously wrote a blog post on why opening a Nuru project in Ethiopia is so critical to getting the Nuru Model to proof of concept. As I reflected on that post, I realized that I had never written about why we chose Kenya to launch Nuru’s pilot project. Most people who encounter Nuru for …
A cornerstone of Nuru Kenya’s model is generating income to drive the organization towards financial sustainability. The engine behind this income generation is the Nuru Kenya Social Enterprises (SE) program. The Nuru Kenya Agriculture program already collaborates with SE on many ventures including input distribution, loan packaging and market provision. For the 2013 short rains …
Kristin Lindell has a bachelor’s in International Relations and two masters’ degrees in International Development and Economics. As an undergraduate, Kristin took advantage of several opportunities to explore poverty and development outside of the classroom. First, she volunteered in a children’s school in a small town in northern Brazil. Then, she traveled throughout the U.S. and …
Nuru International is a social venture committed to ending extreme poverty in remote, rural areas. Nuru’s Agriculture Program frees families of episodic hunger and provides an economic base that equips them to deal with shocks and continue lifting themselves out of extreme poverty. On average, farmers who plant with Nuru during the long rains season increase …
Prior to launching the co-creation process for Nuru Ethiopia’s Agriculture Program in February 2013, Nuru International held a summit at Stanford University to brainstorm on our program planning process. We tried to envision a way to merge different program design tools together to create a story about how our programs would unfold in the lives …
The Nuru Education Team welcomes Jolene McCall! Below, find Jolene’s initial thoughts and hopes for the Nuru Education program. Nearly four years after completing my Peace Corps service in Niger, West Africa and returning to the United States, I was anxious to revisit the continent of Africa and to begin my brief stay in Isibania, …
As Nuru’s Community Economic Development (CED) program grows, a key requirement for training emerges. We not only want to encourage farmers to save and offer them a secure place to keep their money, but we also want to impart to them the skills and knowledge to make wise decisions with the money that they have …
Nuru Kenya farmers regularly face and overcome numerous challenges to crop production to get a good harvest: inconsistent weather, poor infrastructure, inaccessibility, and crop disease, to name just a few. In the 2013 long rains season a new threat, Maize Lethal Necrosis Disease (MLND), was detected in Kuria West. MLND is a crop disease that …