Update from Catalyst
Nuru was honored to be invited to the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta. Grassroots Movement Director Billy Williams gives a quick update from the event.
Nuru
Community Support Essential in Education Programs for Rural Poor in Kenya pt. I
When I first visited the primary school in Gukipimo I thought, “Wow, this place looks like it came straight out of one of those sponsor a child ads on tv.” Of all the schools we are working with, Gukipimo is the one in most dire need of infrastructural development. While the primary school has the …
Handwashing Station – Inexpensive Health Improvement
One of our initiatives is to set up hand washing stations. Without running water, it takes some amount of innovation to have a place to wash your hands. Our design is basic: a holey cup with a hook, soap tied by twine (covered by the top of a water bottle) and a small pot or …
Growing Pains
Today I got to sit in on the Community Development Committee’s weekly meeting. I wish you could have been there, then you could understand why I have a collective crush on the CDC. Watching them interact and work together makes me so happy.
Nuru Invited to Catalyst Conference 2009
On October 6th, 2009 Derek and I hopped in my hybrid and began the drive from Morgantown, WV to Atlanta, Georgia. Nuru had just received an invitation to be part of the Social Justice Tent at Catalyst 2009. What does that mean? First, what is Catalyst? Catalyst is a leadership conference in Atlanta, GA that …
Empowering Uneducated Parents to Advocate for Their Children’s Education pt. II
Initially I was worried that we would have difficulty getting the parents to commit to going to their schools every morning to check attendance. Most of them are farmers, which means that they often take advantage of the cool morning hours to work on their shambas. Yet, when our Education Field Officers presented the idea …
Adding a Laboratory to Health Center in Nyametaboro, Kenya
These last few months, we’ve been working hard at Nyametaburo Health Center. The way medicine is practiced here has really struck me. As an example: a friend had a persistent cough. I took the history and physical and narrowed down to a few possibilities. In medical school, that’s when you get the next round of …
Business Profits Selling Soap in Rural Kenya
Nuru’s all about sustainability. We want our programs to be self-funding as soon as possible. And there are few things more sustainable than profitable business models. One of the best ideas out there on this is the Living Goods model. The idea is basically to use Community Health Promoters (CHP’s, not to be confused with …
Empowering Uneducated Parents to Advocate for Their Children’s Education
Although education is widely regarded as an extremely valuable and necessary institution in this community (Kuria West), a large portion of the farmers we work with never completed primary school. Many cannot read or write. In fact, most of the parents I know have cultivated a lifetime’s worth of knowledge and wisdom solely from their …
The Economics of Part Time Employment in Rural Kenya
Figuring out the economics here is hard. I’m used to the US where people work for money, and there’s no time left in a day. Here it’s completely different. Farm work seems to take half a day. The other half of the day is free. And that’s during planting season. The work gets even lighter …
Groundbreaking
At harvest, Kurians rely mostly on traveling buyers to sell their maize. Because of the high seasonal supply and Kuria’s relative isolation, these middlemen are able to drive prices much lower than the going market rate. We’re hoping to change this. Today we broke ground at the Nuru granary construction site. The goal is to …
594 Farmers Have Joined Nuru Kenya
In a little over a year Nuru international has managed to reach 594 farmers in the Kuria region of Kenya. The amount of farmers involved in the program means that approximately 2,970 people will be directly impacted by these positive results. Jake Harriman, CEO said, “This first year has produced some very humbling – almost shocking – results …
The Surprising Work Pace!
The work pace here is surprising. In the Peace Corps we were constantly reminded to be patient, that people would arrive hours late to meetings (if at all) and that getting anything done would take inhuman perseverance. For two years the majority of my work planning was done weeks early while I waited in empty …
Healthcare in Rural Kenya – Disease Intelligence Network
[Some of these posts will include topics that I’m working on. For such topics, I’d really like feedback. Now I know you don’t think you have anything to contribute, but that’s a lie. I want these blogs to be understandable by everyone, both in vocabulary and concepts. So if there’s something you don’t understand please …
Taragwiti Savings Club
An update from the Nuru CED Program Program Manager, Vivian Lu, at the Taragwiti Savings Club.