A wise woman named Stephanie Jayne once said, “We have two eyes, two ears and one mouth. And we should use them in this proportion.” For the last month, our census team became the eyes and ears of the new communities where Nuru will soon begin performing an evaluation and thereafter implementing programming. Our data collectors for the census took this advice and listened and observed in the community to provide us the following feedback:
According to data collector Nsato:
“The community of Ngisiru sublocation is so positive about Nuru as an organization because of the programs they are intending to bring to the community. Mostly, people are emphasizing that agricultural services should be given the first priority in this area because it is the backbone of our economy.”
Data collector Chirare reports:
“The villagers are eager to know a detailed explanation concerning [Nuru’s] services.”
Kimwamu explains:
“Most people I have collected data from are very glad having been informed of plans to eradicate poverty with agriculture, health, water, education, savings and education.”
It is reassuring to know that Nuru’s impact in the area thus far has excited surrounding communities. The majority of individuals our census visited wanted to learn what Nuru does, how they could become involved as soon as possible, and why we haven’t visited these areas already. According to local community members, these areas have even already started adopting Nuru’s farming techniques. This natural scaling is great, proving that individuals are motivated by others’ successes with Nuru to model the same techniques. Even though Nuru is not yet receiving the same following as the healing Babu in the Arusha region with the Loliondo Drink of Life, individuals are seeking to improve their life situation like other individuals impacted by Nuru.
From a monitoring and evaluation perspective, measuring the true baseline of these communities before Nuru enters is difficult, knowing that a crossover or trickle-down effect may have occurred. Our evaluation of these areas is approaching soon in May. We will be utilizing IFAD’s MPAT tool and working with Alasdair Cohen to survey individuals on questions ranging from food and nutrition security to housing, clothing and energy. An overview of the tool can be found here as explained by Tayo Akinyemi. Now that our census is complete, our monitoring, evaluation and research team will move into preparing for this next phase.