Thirst for Knowledge… Hunger for Change? FT5 (Foundation Team) is embarking on an exciting ride as Nuru begins its expansion throughout the Kuria West District. This week I meet our new Health Field Officers who will oversee and train Health Reps on the basics of malaria, diarrheal diseases, RTI and other health topics. In turn, …
It started in the agriculture program – a lighthearted way that the managers would evaluate each other: Andrew’s Field Officers finished pacing all their members’ farms? Tick, ‘check’! James’ maniacal driving almost pitched Jake off the motorcycle? X! At the end of last year, I heard some of the other managers pick it up and …
In last week’s post, Empowering Local Leaders for Water and Sanitation Data Collection, I talked about the big pieces of the Nuru puzzle I’m focusing on during my time in Kenya. Another piece that we’re working on this run is developing leadership in our Kenyan staff. So far, the Water and Sanitation (WatSan) team has more …
I thought it might be helpful to unravel some of the root issues that contribute to intellectual poverty out here in Kuria. This week I came across a particularly powerful example of these root causes. I met an old woman this week as Francis and I were looking for the cow path that would lead …
How To Lose Trust and Anger People As mentioned last week we are hard at work to develop the structure of the Community Health Worker (CHW) program—all which hinges on one very important factor: community members allowing our health workers into their homes. The purpose of the visits is to collect information to inform future …
The smell of burnt trash as we discuss integrating our new accounting processes with Mifos finally brings me back to Kuria. Maybe it’s because I had my most painless trip out yet (39.5 hours from California to Isibania, door to door!), or because it hasn’t been that long since I left, but a week after …
Bushwacking and Baselines It’s a pretty exciting time to be a part of Nuru because we’re scaling up to new locations. Of course, “exciting time” can also be translated to mean “crazy time” since there’s so much going on. One of my main priorities during my time in Kenya, in addition to training, is to …
Today Francis and I got to talking about early childhood development (ECD). He was stressing the importance of the early years and said, ”You don’t cut a tree from the top, do you? No… you must ensure a child is fully cooked.” While that mix of sentiments had me laughing, his point rang true. A …
Jenga! After just one week into my Kurian rotation I found myself deeply engaged in the core logistics needed to hammer out Nuru’s promising Community Health Worker (CHW) program. I had arrived right before the third and final week of government mandated CHW training and was working with David to design supplemental lessons on topics …
Transitions and Training One of the main priorities during my time in Kenya is to develop a program to educate the community on the dangers of dirty water, and how to get clean water. Some die-hard Nuru fans out there may be asking, wait, didn’t we already do training? And you would be right. However, …
As Thomas gracefully exits Kuria I will try to make a smooth entrance in the Nuru International’s Education Program. My name is Lindsey Kneuven and I have been in Kuria now for a little over 3 weeks. I am serving as the new Education Program Manager, responsible for building on the momentum that my predecessors …
Development Work Rocks! June 30th was International Aid Workers Appreciation Day, and as this is my last official blog post, I thought I would reflect a bit on my job category. I hear a lot about how hard and miserable this job is supposed to be. I’m supposed to be feeling tired and burnt out, …
Transition time in the Nuru Project is a month long whirlwind of action. The culmination of a rotation’s work is all coming to fruition as we transfer all of our knowledge, work plans, initiatives, books, etc.. over to Foundation Team 5. Vivian Lu and I have done two previous transitions with each other, so we …
Reflections on the Past 6 Months Leaving Kuria is always hard to do. But, I’m leaving absolutely delighted with the progress we’ve made, the direction we’re headed and the dedication and talent that my colleague Matt Lee, the new Water and Sanitation Program Manager, will bring to the program. The past 6 months I’ve been …
It seems that is the theme of my life, at least in the past five years since I left my comfortable home and life in suburban Maryland in the summer of 2005 for a country in Central Asia that most people never even heard of. After spending over eight months in Uzbekistan I left in …