Choosing To Be Nuru

I had hoped to get this post up sooner, but as with so many things, life seems to move really fast, and before you know it, days have gone by. The image above was taken by my former roommate, and coworker at Nuru, Derek Roberts. He's an incredible photographer, and a pretty amazing friend too.

But this post isn't about him, but it is about something that he and many others around the country are doing. It's about choosing to be Nuru.

The word Nuru is a Kiswahili word that means light and has a connotation of hope for the people who speak the Kiswahili. Recently, I’ve been amazed to see a number of people around the globe who are standing up and joining with the efforts of Nuru International (the social venture for which I work) to end extreme poverty for the people of Kuria, Kenya.

A few weeks ago, my good friend Jake Harriman who is the CEO of Nuru International and a former WVU student flew into the area to host a series of fundraiser events in and around the Morgantown area. The goal of the weekend was to have a few members of the Nuru family host a fundraiser event in their homes and invite their friends to find out more about Nuru’s story and how they could join us in our efforts to end extreme poverty, together, one community at a time.

Over 60 people attended the events and celebrated the success of Nuru during our very short history. Along with the celebration, we were able to raise enough funds in recurring giving to empower 130 families out of extreme poverty in the second poorest district in all of Kenya.

Personally, I’m really excited that so many people in and around Morgantown are so supportive of Nuru. Nuru has some strong roots here in West Virginia and at WVU, and I love the fact that people from our state are joining together to have a global impact.

It’s hard to fathom that one out of six people on our planet live on less than the buying power of $456USD/year. It’s easy to get discouraged by the magnitude of a billion people living in extreme poverty. It feels like too big of a problem to do anything about, and the problem even feels so far away from anything we can conceive.

But the world is closer now than it has ever been before. Thanks to many recent advances in technology, we are literally more connected across the globe than we have ever been in history. And, you and I have an incredible opportunity to make a tangible difference in ending what I believe is the greatest humanitarian crisis of our generation. In Nuru’s model, it takes only $29/month to empower an entire family out of extreme poverty. That’s less than $1/day for someone here to make a tangible difference for a family they may never meet.

In the future, we are hoping to have similar events in different towns around the country. In a few weeks we will be in Columbus, OH and Chicago, IL. I'm also looking at visiting Parkersburg and a few other locations for the same purpose in the future. Our hope is that more people would join us in being light and hope for others, and would help support our efforts as we work to end extreme poverty, together, one community at a time. Wanna help? Send me a message or comment on this blog, or even go the old fashioned route and call me on the phone. :)

I’m honored to be a part of what Nuru is doing, and I would love for you to consider joining our efforts!

Be hope. Be light. Be Nuru.