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Flexibility, Adaptability, and Scalability: Nuru Ethiopia’s Agriculture Program and the Opportunities of Diversity

| October 8, 2013

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 …

Introducing Alex Martin, Kenya Foundation Team Leader

| October 4, 2013

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 …

Extending Group Based Financial Services to Rural Communities in Extreme Poverty

| October 1, 2013

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 …

Nuru Kenya Education Team Grows Stronger

| September 26, 2013

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 …

Reflections on Nuru Beginnings: Why Kenya?

| September 18, 2013

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 …

Nuru Kenya Agriculture and Social Enterprises Combine Forces to Pilot African Bird’s Eye Chili Project

| September 10, 2013

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 …

Introducing Kristin Lindell, Nuru Ethiopia M&E Fellow

| September 5, 2013

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 …

Premature Cessation of 2013 Long Rains Affects Maize Crop Yields in Kuria West, Kenya

| August 27, 2013

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 …

How Tesfaye’s Road Helps Agriculture Imagine and Create Impact

| August 22, 2013

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 …

Introducing Jolene McCall, Nuru Education Intern

| August 20, 2013

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, …

CED Trainings To Increase Financial Knowledge

| August 15, 2013

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’s Response to Maize Lethal Necrosis Disease: 2013 Long Rains Season in Review

| August 13, 2013

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 …

Introducing Veronica Olazabal, Nuru M&E Director

| August 12, 2013

Veronica Olazabal joins Nuru with a wealth of knowledge and experience from the M&E sector. Veronica earned an M.A. in Anthropology from Columbia University and a dual Masters in Applied Economics and Urban Policy and Planning and a B.A. in Communications from Rutgers University. She has 15 years of professional and academic international experience in Africa, Asia, …

Agriculture Training Guides Families in Limiting Harvest Loss and Improving Food Security

| August 8, 2013

The Nuru Kenya Agriculture program uses a combination of credit, quality inputs, training, field support and group work to help the farmers of Kuria West increase their maize yields. Yet, the program’s work does not end at the time of harvest. The final focus of any rainy season, educating farmers on how to minimize their …

Introducing Candice Corvetti, Nuru Kenya Social Enterprises Business Intern

| August 7, 2013

Candice Corvetti hails from a small rural town in the Adirondack mountains, and she is currently pursuing her MBA at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. During her first year of graduate school, Candice worked extensively with Stanford’s d.school to apply design and analytical thinking towards social innovation issues. Prior to graduate school, Candice worked in …

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