I have always believed in the intense power of creative thought and expression. I believe creativity is an essential component of intellect and one that should be stimulated and nurtured. Kids possess raw creative genius and curiosity. They are natural inventors, constantly repurposing blankets into forts, trashed containers into airplanes, old cardboard boxes into rocket …
Kuria Annual Stakeholders Meeting Over the past few months we have been working hard to improve our relationship with the Ministry of Health. We should no longer merely co-exist, we need to be allies in the war on communicable disease and preventable death and our development of a CHW (Community Health Worker) unit is directly …
We are engaged in a rather heated discussion here at Nuru about Exit Criteria. Stephanie and I have one perspective about it, and a few of the other people here at the organization have a rather different perspective. Whoa, it’s actually a really tough topic. As I write, I realize that I have had versions …
Slowly Going Mobile In our first month using M-PESA PayBill to receive loan payments, we got 1 test transaction, 4 loan payments, and 4 payments made in error by other M-PESA users. Not quite the mobile banking launch I was hoping for. The adoption of mobile loan repayment through M-PESA’s PayBill service has been slow, …
It’s almost that time of year again…drilling time! Maji-Tech, our drillers, are set to come and drill a new well in a village called Nyangiti. So, we’ve been busy working with the community to get ready to drill. This includes having meals ready for the drillers who will be hard at work, providing lodging and …
On my first day of work at Micato Safaris, my first job out of undergrad, my boss called me into his office to discuss my role and give me some tips before embarking on what would be a valuable three-year journey of personal and professional development. He said to me, “the best manager is a …
Backstory Apparel is an organization that has created an environment to host and interact with the makers of compelling videos. The designers at Backstory then create a t-shirt with images inspired from the video. Each design includes a Sticky Bits barcode, and when the barcode is scanned using a smartphone, that smartphone then plays the …
Alright, alright…last week we had a guest blogger (thank you, Stephanie), and the two weeks prior to that I posted some stuff about coal mining, hurricanes, innovation, and tobacco. Each post was very fun to write, but I realize it has been a while since I’ve given an update as to what we’re actually doing …
CED Program Manager, Vivian Lu, shows us the exciting groundbreaking of Nuru’s new Regional Training Center, which will house the Jamii Development Fund and the hub of all of our mobile banking services.
We’ve been in the middle of testing the waters at Moheto lately, and there’s a sense of urgency because of the recent cholera outbreak there. We want to be able to gather data on Moheto’s water sources as quickly as possible so that we can give farmers there the information they need to make informed decisions. …
For those who choose the public health career path, an eye is always peeled for risk situations and poor practices. People who consciously decide to dedicate their life to need-finding and improving health often already exude several of the characteristics that lend to those tasks. Some may include, a good work ethic, the appropriate balance …
Last week, I met with Alasdair Cohen, the lead author of the Multidimensional Poverty Assessment Tool. I wrote about it a while back, so check that out for a general introduction to the MPAT and Nuru. In preparation for the meeting, I re-read the MPAT User Guide (103 pages) and the MPAT Book (211 pages). …
The last two entries describe pretty different profiles. But you may have noticed that Nuru’s target population, those living in extreme poverty, begins working with the Agriculture Program instead of CED. It turns out that many CED loan clients are not the extreme poor. It’s widely accepted that microfinance is not a development panacea. Prominent …
So we, FT5 (Foundation Team 5), just got back from a relaxing weeklong break. What made it even better was knowing I had left the program in good hands. How did I know? The Friday before we left, I sat down for some 1 on 1’s with my team and couldn’t help but see how …
My husband and I traveled to West Virginia over Labor Day weekend and went to the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine in the southern part of the state called, you guessed it, Beckley. I highly recommend the museum to anyone who has the chance to go. It offers a chance to learn a bit about the …