As board chairman, I’ve had the privilege of being involved with Nuru International from the very beginning. However, it wasn’t until August 2011 that I was able to see Nuru’s impact first-hand. My trip to Kenya was nothing short of amazing. I’d like to share my thoughts and reflections. Upon arriving in Kenya, my first …
Gazing across the rural Kurian countryside, you see houses scattered miles apart from each other, hills rolling, and no major roads but rather tiny, winding walking paths that stretch through fields of maize, over streams without bridges, and over the horizon out of sight. To perform a survey in this landscape is trying – because …
The stairs leading up to the leadership training room are precarious – a thin layer of cement over rebar – no railing. At the top is a landing with large double doors that pull open to a wide, cool space. I pause outside, looking in: a room under construction. Cement walls, no paint. The ceiling …
This has been a very busy couple of weeks for us here on the M&E team. It’s fun, though, when there is a variety of work to do as opposed to one major piece of work to focus on and worry about. I like variety. I like switching from one thing to the next in …
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 …
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 …