It was a hectic previous month. In the past five weeks the Nuru Ethiopia Leadership team has finished leading Level 1 training for the first time, while simultaneously running the Program Planning Process (PPP) for CED. Through Level 1 training, our Agriculture Community Animators, the team that will implement the Agriculture (Ag) Program in the …
Nuru International’s goal is to end extreme poverty in remote rural areas across the globe. The challenge of ending extreme poverty is colossal in scope, complexity and scale. To achieve this goal, we cannot and should not work alone. We form strategic partnerships – relationships of cooperation and collaboration oriented to a common goal. With …
The Nuru Ethiopia Agriculture Team is excited to share the beginnings of the 2014 belg season planting through photographs. As these farmers continue to diligently work their land, we will share their progress. Farmers in Hambisa kebele learn about group work and the correct spacing for intercropped maize and beans. By working together in …
Nuru’s Agriculture Programs in Kenya and Ethiopia have launched crop operations in 2014 holding crop diversification as a central element. What is crop diversification? What are its pros and cons? How is it being deployed in Nuru? Crop diversification is the practice of producing a variety of crops in a farm enterprise or system. Diversification …
Maize and haricot beans, according to the strengths and needs assessment carried out by Nuru International’s Monitoring and Evaluation team last year, are two of the most important subsistence crops that farmers in Boreda depend on (2013). Further research undertaken by the Agriculture Program team has shown that most farmers plant maize and beans on …
Nuru Ethiopia’s Agriculture Program is founded on two basic premises. The first premise is that subsistence crops (sweet potatoes, taro, and enset[1]) that make up the majority of local diets should be prioritized to accomplish the primary mission of ending hunger in communities throughout Ethiopia. The second premise is that the performance of income-generating crops …
Creativity, inspiration and resolve. That’s the atmosphere here surrounding Nuru Ethiopia right now. We’ve just embarked on the journey to create our new Financial Inclusion (FI) Program with some of the brightest, most talented and motivated individuals from the community here in Southern Ethiopia. We have asked these select six to join us for the …
It was about two years ago when we first began talking about “cross-pollination” at Nuru. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines cross-pollination as “the transfer of pollen from one flower to the stigma of another.” Though I had never used the word in a sentence before literally or as a metaphor, it was an exciting idea. We …
While we have heard comments throughout the year about the education program, we wanted to know in detail how Nuru’s Education Outreach Program was perceived by teachers in the schools we work with over the course of the 2013 school year. In the last week of October, at the end of the 2013 school year …
In late October and early November, a segment of the Nuru Ethiopia staff made a journey to Isebania, Kenya to learn about the Nuru Kenya program. The Nuru Ethiopia Agriculture team was able to see a Nuru program in full implementation – on the field, in the office, and in the professional efficacy of a …
Nuru International’s work areas in Kenya and Ethiopia are rural agrarian communities in extreme poverty. These communities are vulnerable to risks and uncertainty in many facets of life. This blog recounts Nuru International’s strategy to bolster the resilience of farmers in these communities. Where Nuru works, farmers’ income is largely derived from small-scale rain-fed agriculture …
Every society has staple foods that embody its subsistence strategy. In agricultural societies, this suite of staple crops is determined by a variety of factors: dietary preference, environmental constraints and opportunities, economic development and political economy, and basic nutritional requirements for a functioning social system. The suite of crops that a society consumes embodies all …
Kristin Lindell has a bachelor’s in International Relations and two masters’ degrees in International Development and Economics. As an undergraduate, Kristin took advantage of several opportunities to explore poverty and development outside of the classroom. First, she volunteered in a children’s school in a small town in northern Brazil. Then, she traveled throughout the U.S. and …
Prior to launching the co-creation process for Nuru Ethiopia’s Agriculture Program in February 2013, Nuru International held a summit at Stanford University to brainstorm on our program planning process. We tried to envision a way to merge different program design tools together to create a story about how our programs would unfold in the lives …
The Leadership Program welcomes Brian Viani and Paige Belt, the new Program Facilitators for Nuru Kenya and Nuru Ethiopia respectively. It struck me how far we have come as an organization and in the Leadership Program this past month as I worked with Brian Viani and Paige Belt to on-board them and prepare them to …