The mission of the Nuru International Education Program is twofold. One is to create communities that understand and value education as a tool set that can be used to improve individual and family situations. The second is to foster communities that act on this understanding by pursuing education as a short- and long-term solution to …
In order to make our projects truly sustainable, Nuru works with the community to create innovative revenue generation models that will eventually be able to meet all the expenses of the project – making the community truly financially self-sufficient. Many times, these ideas come from our Kenyan team. Philip and his team are incredibly resourceful …
My name is Thomas Hong and I am here in Kuria West as the new Education Program Manager. I have been here almost three weeks observing and learning about the Education program as well as about all Nuru programs. I have also met more people than I can remember while trying to adjust to not …
Outrunning the Rain Check in with the team is at 8am – we stand in a circle and report in brief what we did yesterday and what we’ll be doing today. It helps with the logistics for that day. After check in I’m scarfing down oatmeal and coffee, trying to send an email to my …
Deep Well Buy-in Program Over the past two weeks, I managed to fill up an entire notebook, drain two pens, and completely cover my wall in fluorescent-colored sticky notes (this neurotic mess is featured in the photo). My Design Thinking training informed me that the very first thing I needed to do upon arrival back …
Removing the rust and getting back into the field is always a challenge. It always amazes me just how quickly I can become soft. The calluses- both internal and external- seem to thin at a much quicker rate than they were earned. My cast-iron stomach has been the result of years of bacterial battles from …
It’s wonderful to be back in Kenya! So many things have changed in the community since I was here in Kuria nearly one year ago and then some things haven’t changed a bit, like… My feet are covered in Kenyan red dirt, the power goes out every day, getting soaked on a motorcycle ride into …
Iiiiiiiii’m Baaaaaccck! I was just reflecting on this: I’ve had the privilege to work with EVERY member of the Nuru International Foundation Teams! I was a part of the first team arriving here in September 2008: Jake, Nicole, Doug and I. This is when we lived in the house with dirt floors and where we …
On Wednesdays at 3:00 p.m. I am usually at our regional Savings Club meeting in Nyangiti primary school, fighting sleepiness in the heat of the afternoon. Outside the window is the most amazing field of tobacco, lush, leafy and bright green. I’m kind of fascinated by how beautiful the plant is, considering the hate-need relationship …
Times are a-changing here on the ground in Kuria. The newest round of agriculture seed/fertilizer loans were distributed this week, an increasing number of farmers are bringing their maize harvest into the granary to sell, and the newest rotation of foundation team members arrived at the beginning of this week! Needless to say, we are …
So it begins. I am now officially a Research Officer. I’m on a special assignment the next seven weeks to get a data collection system set up for the Poverty Intelligence Network (a revision of the Disease Intelligence Network… all this is in the blogosphere if you’re really interested). I’m going to work on data: …
When I first joined Nuru’s Research Team, what I was most excited about was the chance to be part of transforming the future for the extremely poor through “little things” called metrics, data, evaluation, and informed decision-making. Not sexy, not as much fun as getting your hands dirty in the field, but vital. Transformation? Of …
What can one do with access to all the world’s information? How would that knowledge help farmers in rural Kenya? What if they could easily communicate with anyone else in the world? Before I attempt to answer these questions, really think about them. This is a period in human history without precedent. Seriously, take a …
Sorry for the long radio silence! We are back from Africa, and we’re hard at work synthesizing the results of Evaluation 1. Two weeks ago I spent one full week building an excel model to analyze the data our evaluators gathered in the field. It’s got some glitches and some errors at this point, but …
If you ask anyone in Kuria “siku za mwizi ni ngapi?” (how many days does it take to catch a thief?), the prompt reply will be “arobaini”. Forty days.