Lessons Learned
Nuru Burkina Faso Visits Nuru Kenya
Learning exchanges among Nuru Collective members are crucial for continued growth. In September 2023, the Nuru Burkina Faso team traveled to Kenya for a learning exchange with their fellow collective member, Nuru Kenya. During this time, Nuru Burkina Faso was able to immerse itself in Nuru Kenya’s lessons learned over the last 15 years of …
Climate Strategy: Interview with Nuru’s Casey Harrison
In this second post in our three-part series on Nuru’s approach to climate change adaptation, we invite you to get to know Nuru International Impact and Learning Director Casey Harrison. In this interview, he shares more about his professional background and unpacks Nuru’s Community Climate Resilience Strategy–a vital aspect of the Nuru model in the face …
Hope in Uncertain Times
Hope. I have been reflecting a lot lately on how absent this word has been from people’s mouths in recent days. The darkness of fear came so quickly that life from a month ago feels like it was already ages ago. I have had the fortune of living a life full of choices and wonder. A …
Reflections on Expatriate Exit from Nuru Ethiopia in 2018
Expatriate Exit in Ethiopia Right now, the air is abuzz with opportunity in Ethiopia. Across the country there is talk of reform and change and new ideals upon which governance and growth can be built. It is too early to know what will happen long term, but 2018 has brought a palpable energy and hope …
Development Work That Makes a Lasting Impact
As my flight neared its destination, I tried to remember how I felt during my first descent into Addis ten years ago when it was not just my first trip to Ethiopia or Africa, but my first outside of the USA. I would spend a semester with Doane College professor, Betty Levitov, and 14 other …
Five stages of Building a Local Measurement & Evaluation Team
As Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Program Manager for Nuru Kenya, I consistently work with my team to build up different strengths that enable us to objectively monitor and evaluate Nuru Kenya’s impact programs. I want to share my experience building a credible and sustainable M&E system in Kenya. Below are the five critical stages our …
Reflections on Expatriate Exit from Nuru Kenya
2015 was a big year for Nuru Kenya. In June, our whole expatriate (expat) team living in Kenya packed up our suitcases, said our goodbyes, and headed out of town. Our Kenyan colleagues had already been running operations for a year and were well prepared to continue in our absence. Yet, this was a big …
Cultivating a Culture of Failure and Learning
Nuru International set out to design the first self-scaling, self-sustaining, holistic, development model to end extreme poverty in rural, remote areas, in our lifetime. We started with a pilot project in Kuria West, Kenya in September 2008. Six years later, our integrated model is making attributable impact and Nuru Kenya is months away from being …
Lessons Learned: Fostering a Sense of Urgency
Nuru International is pioneering a solution to end extreme poverty in remote, rural areas. We believe that in pursuing this solution, we will find new ways to solve old problems. There is risk in being a pathfinder. With risk comes failure. Nuru will not complete its mission without failure. Failure will lead to our success. …
22 Things I learned about myself after leaving the Marines – then living in Kenya
For Veterans Day, Alex Martin shares his story of how he found a fulfilling career – and happiness – working as a humanitarian in Kenya after leaving the Marines. The following entry originally appeared on ONE.org. Just before leaving the Marine Corps in 2011, I wrote a brief reflection on what I’d learned. I wrote it …