Yesterday was one of the best days I’ve had in a while. I slot a few days every week to go around and visit the farmers and check up on them to see if they are practicing the farming techniques that we have taught them and just to say hi and see how their families …
Yesterday was one of the best days I’ve had in a while. I slot a few days every week to go around and visit the farmers and check up on them to see if they are practicing the farming techniques that we have taught them and just to say hi and see how their families …
Today, the CED field officers were extended formal positions with Nuru. They have been working with us as volunteer leaders for 6 months. For the last few months, we have been training on topics ranging from group bookkeeping to loan approval and management. We also focused on building client trust and relationships, which has turned …
I’ve been rather bored these past few weeks. Why? Because when it comes to our base training, I’m not needed any more. The training materials were purchased (without me). The copies were made (without me). The schedule was made (without me). The logistics were organized (without me). And the trainings were carried out by the …
Over the past couple of months Francis and I have been working with three schools on our School Business Proposal Program. As I described briefly in earlier blogs, this program is designed to help the leaders in a given school (the head teacher, chairman of the PTA, Nuru school representative) brainstorm innovative income-generating projects that …
When I arrived in Kenya, Nyametaburo Health Center (NHC) was in a sorry state. Janine, my predecessor, did an excellent job of identifying needs at the center. And believe me, even listing the problems was quite a task. Counting down, I’ll describe the top three problems at NHC and what we’ve done.
Attendance at the first financial planning workshop for Farming Savings members was 185! 186, if you count the cow that wandered inside during the workshop at Sirori Simba. Apparently, this is a good omen in Kuria. I was excited about the attendance. My field officers were excited about the cow.
At Nuru we try to avoid starting programs that run parallel to the development responsibilities of the national government, such as building our own private schools, repaving public dirt roads, or providing electricity to remote villages. Instead, our approach is fundamentally based on partnership with the community. That means that we intentionally work within the …
Over the last few weeks, I’ve heard stories of different people running marathons and using their feet to accomplish a great feat for ending extreme poverty. Here are just a couple. Brittani has been a huge fan of Nuru and has participated in awareness events like Be Hope To Her in the past. As she and …
An update from CED Program Manager Vivian Lu outside a Farmer Savings Program Workshop.
Nuru International is humbled to be featured on Apple.com’s Hot News feed. Apple’s Hot News picked up a story written by Jim Dalrymple of The Loop Insight website entitled, “Non-profit organization Nuru utillizes Macs to end extreme poverty.” The Nuru Media team is in heaven since we’re all HUGE Mac fans! Thank you to The …
Nuru International’s National Tour Poverty Campaign departed from Morgantown, West Virginia this afternoon on a 3 month, 20,000 mile, 50 city tour to catalyze a movement of hope to end extreme poverty in our lifetimes. Three young poverty fighters will drive around the country in a beat-up, old passenger van for ten weeks to answer …
Nuru International has made it easier than ever to subscribe to blogs on our website by incorporating RSS feeds. Here’s what to do: Go to your favorite Nuru blog (Agriculture, Water & Sanitation, Healthcare, Education, Community Eononomic Development, Grassroots Movement, Research, BH2O+) Click on the RSS button in the right-hand column. At the top of …
Mind the Gap – Gapminder I can’t stop looking at and playing with this website: Gapminder. It’s really amazing. It gives you, at just a glimpse pretty much every kind of socio-economic and environmental data (and then some…I just spent some time looking at livestock statistics…not sure where they fit in to those two categories) …
The other night, a man came to the health center. The only nurse, Stephen Sangara, works eight hours per day and then sleeps on the premises. But he’s on call 24 hours a day, every day. The man awoke him, shouting in the night. Mr. Sangara came to the gate and opened it. The man …