Labor Day and Linking Together To End Extreme Poverty

I remember so vividly the summer of 2007. I had recently watched my mom leave this world to be with Jesus and had been laboring together with a number of friends to start a coffee shop in downtown Morgantown during a time when ideas like "fair-trade" were just starting to get traction in the US. I was leading out the college and young professionals ministry at Chestnut Ridge Church and had just finished my Master's degree in English at WVU. My friend John Hancox and I had chatted a couple of times about our own passions for social justice and the many great tragedies our generation was witnessing in the world, along with what another mutual friend, Jake Harriman, had been doing since he left the Marine Corps. Jake and I were starting to talk as well, although we were literally about a half-a-world apart. He was doing an internship with an organization called One Acre Fund in southwestern Kenya.

Jake and I had not been in as frequent contact after our undergraduate years, but through technologies like g-chat and Skype, we began to reconnect. He shared a blog he had started to capture some of his experiences in Kenya, and sent a business plan for an idea he had to make a significant impact in fighting extreme poverty called Nuru International. The business plan was the culmination of work of  several of his classmates, professors, and friends at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. 

During our undergraduate days, there was was a group of us dreaming big dreams about changing the world--the group was much larger than Jake, John, and myself, and amazingly we had all stayed in touch by varying degrees. We had moved forward in our various career paths with passion and a deep desire to make our lives count.  

Jake and I had committed to meeting up on Labor Day 2007, to talk in more detail about Nuru, and how it might make sense to work together. We discussed different movements we had grown to appreciate like Invisible Children and ONE, and how they were helping generations move forward in fresh ways to make a difference in the world. We had originally committed to meeting for about an hour, but we ended up meeting all day. Jake, John, and I drove from Morgantown to Hancock Maryland to meet with another board member to discuss the process of taking this idea and making it viable by legally registering as a nonprofit. The day was filled with laughter, dedicated thinking, and meaningful conversation. It was a wonderful reunion among like-minded friends looking to work together to do their part to make the world a better place. 

And now, nine years later, many of the ideas discussed back then have moved from abstract concepts to concrete realities. Nuru is no longer just an idea, but an organization filled with dedicated and hard working individuals from around the world who are passionate about seeing the end of extreme poverty. Together, with the support of thousands of supporters in the US and abroad, we have been able to see literally thousands of households in Kenya and Ethiopia take tangible steps to begin lifting themselves out of extreme poverty permanently. When I think back on what has been accomplished, I am filled with joy, and when I look forward I am thrilled about the potential legacy for my soon to arrive child--if we can keep moving forward and building momentum, together, we will see the end of extreme poverty, and a brighter world for everyone!

May we never forget to pause and reflect as we move forward to make the world safer and brighter for everyone!

The Last Hunger Season by Roger Thurow

Earlier this summer, I was able to acquire a copy  of Roger Thurow’s new book, The Last Hunger Season. The book chronicles one year in the lives of four families who are working with an organization called One Acre Fund (OAF) to improve their livelihood as small shareholder farmers.

My initial interest in the book was because One Acre Fund is an incredible thought partner for Nuru International, and our CEO, Jake Harriman, did a summer internship with OAF in 2007 in order to learn more about their model first-hand. If you have not heard of One Acre Fund, I strongly recommend you look into their work to improve the lives of farmers in Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi.

But now for more about the book. Thurow starts off by explaining what is meant by a “hunger season” or “wanjala” in Kiswahili as this is a foreign concept to people who have never set foot outside the United States. In the West, we have access to food year round. For people in the US, it is hard to fathom that anyone on the planet would ever run out of food, or that food prices could double and triple during those times of year when there is a shortage. Even more difficult for our minds to imagine is that people grow most of their own food. While we know that farms exist, most people here buy their food in a supermarket.

Thurow does a masterful job of allowing the reader to enter into daily life for people in remote rural Kenya who are living in extreme poverty.  Unless one has witnessed it firsthand, it is hard to imagine whole communities who lack access to electricity or running water. It’s hard to imagine healthcare that is "distant and meager at best." Beyond this, Thurow helps readers get a better understanding of what access to high quality seed and fertilizer and improved planting techniques can do for these agrarian communities.

Too often, in the West we have been given distorted images of people living in extreme poverty. Too often, our global neighbors are portrayed as helpless and unable to fend for themselves. The truth of the matter is that our global neighbors are incredibly resourceful, but they have largely lacked access to tools and knowledge that could mean massive improvements to their livelihood.  Too often, these people are portrayed in a way in which we do not see their full humanity, their brilliance, or the daily choices they are compelled to make. Roger Thurow helps us to get a more accurate image of who these people are and what their dreams are, both for themselves and for their children. During each chapter, he allows us to walk through the lives of four One Acre farmers, and experience the challenges they bravely face during the course of a year. I believe that through Thurow's detailed chronicling of one year in the lives of the families of Leonida, Rasoa, Zipporah, and Francis, we have been given a true treasure. 

Through the innovative work of organizations like One Acre Fund and Nuru International, literally thousands of families are taking the first steps toward lifting themselves out of extreme poverty and dealing with chronic hunger. In the book, one gets a vivid image of the challenges that a family might face in a year, challenges like paying school fees and paying back agricultural loans. Thurow reminds us of challenges like insuring that a family has enough food to eat through the wanjala, or even challenges like dealing with health emergencies like malaria. 

Beyond his detailed description of one year in the life of four farmers, Thurow offers a primer to the history of sustainable agriculture and international development from Norman Borlaug's work in India and Pakistan in the 60s and 70s to renewal efforts being led by groups like Bread for the World, One Acre Fund, Nuru, and many others in this generation. Throughout the book, he also details the work of advocacy groups like ONE (an advocacy organization started by Bono, the lead singer of the band U2) and even the work of the Obama administration's Feed The Future initiative and agencies like USAID to bolster food security and production. He even quotes US Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack's reminder that, "just one lifetime ago the United States was a country of subsistence farmers...there are no better innovators than those who farm the land." Thurow allows us to not only read about the lives of farmers, but his book is filled with opportunities to learn more about the history of sustainable agricultural development, as well as learn how others, like former representative Tony Hall and Christian writer Jim Wallis, have taken tangible action steps to speak and take action about the unnecessary injustice of chronic hunger.

I really loved the book for a number of reasons, and I believe the book is a must-read for anybody interested in sustainable agriculture as well as how our global neighbors who are suffering in extreme poverty may be able to chart a better future for themselves. If you take the time to read the stories of one year in the life of the families of Leonida, Rasoa, Zipporah, and Francis, I hope you will be able to move past the statistics you may have heard, and come to the conclusion that there is hope, and that we stand on the threshold of an amazing opportunity to work together toward helping farmers like the ones mentioned above provide a better future for their families. Thank you Roger Thurow for your engaging and inspiring work open our eyes to parts of our world from which so many in the West have been insulated.

Nuru International Partners with Sevenly T-shirts To Support Rural Farmers On World Food Day

As part of observation of World Food Day, through October 16, Nuru International is proud to partner with the Sevenly T-shirt Company to raise funds and awareness for Nuru’s agricultural program in Kuria Kenya.  For every Sevenly shirt sold, the t-shirt company will donate $7 toward Nuru’s work to equip poor farmers with the tools and knowledge they need to lead their communities out of extreme poverty. Sevenly’s mission is to raise funds and awareness for the world’s greatest causes, and at Nuru folks are excited to be featured for their campaign this week in conjunction with World Food Day.

Nuru’s agricultural program is a linchpin for it's holistic model. We based this model on an incredibly successful model that we witnessed from one of our partner organizations, One Acre Fund. At Nuru, we pursue a holistic approach to international development that capitalizes on synergies developed by simultaneously attacking multiple issues that lead to systemic extreme poverty. For example, most families in remote, rural areas farm their own land. We train farmers to increase their harvest using the best agricultural means available. An increased harvest means they will have enough food to feed their families and surplus to sell; with the money earned, families are then able to save for the future and afford healthcare interventions for their family, education for their children, and necessities for their home, like a latrine.

This year, millions of families in East Africa are suffering because of a horrible drought, but amid the drought, Nuru farmers who have participated in our agriculture programs, while producing a lower yield this season, still have enough food to feed their families, pay back their loan of inputs, and generate revenue from the sale of surplus maize. In a recent blog post, Nuru’s CEO, and agricultural program manager, Jake Harriman gave further detail about what these interventions mean for farmers in Kenya. Since Nuru’s inception, it's  agricultural program has enrolled over 2000 families as well as loaned or sold over 40 tons of maize seed and 400 tons of fertilizer. Farmers have seen an increase in yield of 250% and Nuru boasts a 98% repayment rate on loans disbursed.

It is incredible that Nuru  is able to participate with Sevenly’s T-shirt program during the week of World Food Day, because this offers many an opportunity to take tangible steps to alleviate hunger as part of a greater vision to end extreme poverty in remote rural areas. Will you join us in our efforts to engage more people in this work? Here are a few suggestions from the World Food Day website. Join with Nuru, and take a tangible step toward a world in which people who live in extreme poverty have the choice to determine their future.

Also, if you would like to buy this Sevenly t-shirt, you only have a few hours left...sales discontinue at 12PM EST Monday October 17th.

Lasting Impact

My friend Jake posted this video on his twitter account recently, and out of curiosity I found myself watching this eighteen minute video where Kevin Starr of the Mulago Foundation shares how his foundation researches organizations to find those who are making a lasting impact.  If you look carefully, at one point there is a slide behind him that shows the logos of a number of organizations, including Nuru! Yay!


I wanted to share this video with you because I felt like Mr. Starr lays out some great criteria for individuals like you and me to consider when we are looking to invest our limited resources in projects that have the potential to make a lasting impact on problems in the world.


Here are the four questions he uses as a filter.

1. Is it needed?
2. Does it work?
3. Will it get to those who need it?
4. Will they use it correctly when they get it?

People are coming up with some really creative solutions to some major problems in our world, and at first glance, they all sound great, but upon further inspection, not as many have the ability to bring about lasting impact.  May these questions serve as a tool for you as you seek to make wise philanthropic investments of your limited resources to help create lasting change.