When I was a kid, I remember my dad routinely encouraging me in the midst of failure as I grew up. “It doesn’t matter so much that you failed,” he would say. “What matters most is that you learn from this failure and don’t repeat the same mistakes that led you here in the future.” …
Since opening, attendance at the learning center has steadily hovered around 300 – 350 youth. Schools are preparing to reopen in September, and they have just opened their doors to offer students remedial attention in the form of “ tuition.” This week many of the kids from the learning center returned to school for tuition, leaving us …
Although Nuru’s healthcare program focuses primarily on maternal and child health, we think it’s extremely important to involve men in all of our programming. In Kuria, Kenya, men are traditionally the primary decision makers. This still holds true in most households. Before getting married, a man has to pay a dowry in cows to his potential …
What do you get when you cross the community’s point-of-view and working to determine the impact of programming? Participatory evaluation. According to the World Bank, participatory evaluation is when stakeholders are involved in various phases of the monitoring or evaluation process. In June, Gaby mentioned the M&E team is in the process of developing Program …
Boke (pronounced Bow-kay) just completed his summer internship with Nuru-Kenya. A lot of Boke’s classmates did their internships in Nairobi near their university, but Boke chose to forgo city life for a few months and make the 8-hour journey to Kuria to do his internship with Nuru-Kenya, which is led by his father Philip Masero …
I have two living grandparents, my family lives in New Hampshire, and I am a United States citizen; we are all freaking out about the U.S. debt crisis. It is a real and scary part of our lives right now. The U.S. government has provided its citizens with some level of financial security through social …
If you’ve gotten this far into Nuru’s website, you most likely know about Nuru’s holistic model. Being part of a holistic model means that we have the opportunity to work with other program areas to enhance the impact of each individual program. The healthcare team is currently collaborating with Water and Sanitation, Education, Leadership, and …
Last year I learned about an organization called Worldbike. It was essentially founded by an innovative engineer who designed a tool that he wants to proliferate around the developing world: a very durable high-capacity bicycle. The bike can help people transport themselves, other people, and goods in and around their communities. Just like so much …
Monday, August 1st marked the grand opening of the Nuru learning center. Schools are currently closed for break and usually youth are idle or put to work during this time. Our goal is to harness that idle time and provide a productive, engaging learning environment. 53 children arrived early that Monday morning curious to see …
For the last two months, the Leadership Program has been piloting a new training series on effective feedback. In this series we have sought to foster a frank dialogue about the challenges and benefits of giving and receiving feedback in Nuru. Through much discussion, we have gained insight into the risks and fears many people …
I weaved in and out of the tall maize stalks as James and I hurried to keep up with Emmanuel, a Nuru Field Officer overseeing 56 new Nuru farmers in a small collection of villages known as Ihore in the Kuria West District of southwest Kenya. We were moving quickly through the “shamba” (farm) of …
If Nuru’s Community Economic Development (CED) Program isn’t an MFI, doesn’t expect everyone to be an entrepreneur, and has a relatively low cap for its maximum loan amount…what exactly is the program’s “big idea”? We recently held an International Summit at Nuru International so that all teams could collaborate and work through the DIF (Design Iteration Format). This …
I recently returned back to Kenya after a little break in the States – to see my husband, meet my new nephew and catch up with friends and family. When I returned my Kenyan colleagues asked me to tell stories of my adventures in America: how was my family, Obama, etc. I filled them in, …
I recently interviewed my counterpart, Rogonga Augustine, about his experience working for Nuru and his recent work with the MPAT. He’s featured on the right in the photo above, training enumerators to implement the MPAT survey. Hi Rogonga! Tell us a few things about yourself, such as your age, your favorite food and your favorite book. Sure. …
Cake Charts. I’m a little obsessed with cake charts this week. Ever heard of them? When I do a Google-image search for them, pie charts galore come up as well as photographs of really yummy looking cakes. Cake and pie charts have only one thing to do with one another: they are named after delectable …