Sowing the Seeds of Africa’s Green Revolution

Eliminate Poverty Now recently received a major gift from the Brach Family Charitable Foundation. Thanks to the generosity of the Brach family and others, we're moving full speed ahead with the launch of Farmers of the Future, one of Eliminate Poverty Now's Top priorities.

The goal of the program is to teach modern agricultural concepts to children in primary school. It’s one part classroom learning, one part 4-H Club and one part Junior Achievement. Working together with our partners – Pencils for Kids and Dov Pasternak, the father of the FOF concept – the program’s launch is slated for October 1^st, 2011, the beginning of the new school year.

We kicked off development of the classroom material during our visit to Niger in February.

A team of local technical experts and pedagogues is now collaborating to create illustrated pamphlets on 6 different subjects: from growing vegetables and trees to raising animals to managing a small farm for profit. Material will be completed by late summer, in time to begin training teachers in September.

If you click here, you can see the entire Tree Nursery booklet.

Two additional pilot schools are being added to the initial site at Gueriguinde which we visited in February.

“Mini-farms” are being created adjacent to the two schools so students can practice first hand what they learn in class. One of the two schools didn’t have a large enough yard for the mini-farm so the village leaders just agreed to give the school a 3-acre parcel a few hundred yards down the road. Wells are being dug, concrete water reservoirs will be poured and tree nursery and sheep enclosures will be built so the farms are ready for business come October.

To manage all the details of the start-up we have hired our first employee, Ibrahim Ali. Ibrahim will serve as Project Administrator with broad responsibilities to insure the launch stays on time and on budget.

Planning activities for FOF pilot sites installation

	May			Jun			Jul			Aug			Sep			Duration
	10	20	30	10	20	30	10	20	30	10	20	30	10	20	30	(days)
Ecole centre
Geo-physics study																5
Borehole																15
Construction of reservoir																14
Installation of drip irrigation equipment																5
Nursery Set-up																14
Construction of sheep fattening																5
Galbal School
Fencing and cleaning site																20
Well construction																20
Construction of reservoir																14
Installation of drip irrigation equipment																5
Nursery installation																14
Construction of sheep fattening																5
Guereguinde
Construction of sheep fattening																5
Setting up watering hose for Nursery																3
protecting wire for electric pump																2

He will also be responsible for carefully monitoring the program’s performance during the first pilot year so we quickly identify what’s working, what’s not, and course correct wherever needed.

Finally, we’ve started to explore opening a handful of pilot schools in the original Millennium Village Cluster in Sauri Kenya. Piloting in Kenya would bring the program to the English speaking side of the continent. The Millennium Villages Project (MVP) is active in 10 countries in Africa. So if the MVP gets excited about the program’s potential, it could provide access to several additional countries on the continent.

Through Farmers of the Future our goal is to help sow the seeds of Africa’s Green Revolution. And we’re on target for an October 1^st launch.

It’s time for ThanksGiving

Eliminate Poverty Now made its first grant exactly a year ago, after growing out of work the Craigs had been doing in Africa since 2005.

So it’s an opportune time to reflect on what’s been accomplished. But that’s for another blog. Right now, we want to thank the people who made the accomplishments possible. There are so many wonderful people who have helped us, and I am sure I will forget someone. Those of you I have omitted, please forgive me – but please also give me a gentle reminder so I can correct the omission.

First, our Board, who have been so generous with their time and so supportive of making the Craigs’ vision a reality. Thank you Liz Craig, Rich Finkelstein, Becca Nelson, Eric Nelson, and Larry Samuels. And an enormous thank you to Margie Samuels, for performing double duty this year as Secretary and acknowledging all the donations. Without this group of terrific supporters, our 501-c-3 could never have been born.

We are blessed because so many people have stepped up to help. You already have heard about Eliana Arian, Sam and Harriet Lapkin, Adar Netef, Matt Twomey, and Susan Werk. We also have some fantastic new volunteers:

Debbie Leon – Donor Relations; Ellen Arian – Outreach to North American Girls and Women; and Kasi Dean – College Volunteer Coordinator (from left to right below):

There are the business and professional people who have been generous with their wisdom and their products and services: Scott Fortunoff of A.E. Nathan, Vicky True of Better World B2B, Gabi Schaffzin of Barely Concealed Narcissism, Charlie Abraham and Dave Sager of Day Pitney LLP, Jen Grana of Juniper Designs, Madeleine Shaw of Lunapads, Marilyn Rose of Marilyn Rose Design, Mitch Eichen and Oleg Ikhelson of The MDE Group, Abby Kanter and Bob Weiner of the New Jersey Jewish News, and Bob DeNatale.

We honor the friends who have given advice in crucial areas: Jan Hough Bottcher, Pete Brach, Sergio Burani, Liz Craig, Eric Falk, Jocelyn Gilman, Ruth Herr, Mayda Kale, Diane Klein, Christine Lotze, Rick Miners, Kaveh Naficy, Rebekah Raz, Jeri Sedlar, Mimi Schlumberger, Rabbi Alan Silverstein, Hellen Spanjer, Dan Twomey, Branch Watkins and Peter Wentworth.

We are privileged to have been able to partner with people who inspire and awe us: Dr. Dov Pasternak; Lilly Oyare of Little Rock Early Childhood Development Centre; Hamani Djibo of ONG-LIBO; Robin Mednick of Pencils for Kids; Rustom Masalawala; Alice Chepkurui, Stanley Mungai and Sammy Maina of Nanyuki Handcrafts; and the dedicated people of the Millennium Villages Project and of MASHAV.

And we are deeply grateful to our donors for their financial support.

With such broad and deep backing, it has been a momentous first year and we look forward to going from strength to strength.

Our first PROFESSIONAL video

This week I want to thank Matt Twomey, who is editing a video of Little Rock Early Childhood Development Centre (ECD).

Matt does print and web journalism and documentary filmmaking. He has an MA in journalism from Syracuse University, and served as a writer, copy editor and editor for such publications as Business Week, the New York Post, and the Japan Times. We are indeed fortunate to have such a talented professional helping us spread the word about Little Rock.

John and I have come to the conclusion that to call Little Rock an ECD understates what it does. Yes, it IS a nursery school – and a very good one. It is nurturing, child-centered, and does a beautiful job of preparing these little ones for primary school. We would have sent our own children there – except that we were blessed not to be living in Kibera.

But Little Rock is so much more than a nursery school. Its mission is to support the whole family, and so director Lilly Oyare has reached out to teenage moms, providing a day-care center so these girls can finish school. She has included deaf and handicapped children, preparing them for primary school, finding schools that would accept these children, and – when no school would take them - teaching them the primary school curriculum. She provides a workshop for parents to sew, weave and knit as a way for them to earn income. The Little Rock Library purchases all the primary school textbooks, so graduates can be tutored after school and do their homework. She even fields a soccer team that is the champion of East Africa!

Last February, Lilly spoke about all this in a video we hope to use to raise funds for Little Rock. Matt is doing an amazing job editing this video. We’d love to know if you have any thoughts about it. Please comment here so we can all discuss how it could be improved before we open it to a wider audience.

Too much of a good thing

My teacher, Susan Werk, has been a great supporter of Pads for Peace. Through her leadership two years ago, the Women's Seder at Congregation Agudath Israel raised funds to deliver 850,000 sanitary pads to the girls of Sauri, Kenya! Last year, this same group - along with West Orange High School, Hoboken Hadassah and others - began a penpal relationship with these 6th - 8th grade girls. And as I wrote in an earlier post, Eliana Arian and Adar Netef are starting a penpal program at Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy.

The Kenyan teachers are very excited about these kids having the opportunity to learn to express themselves - which is the very essence of empowerment. And they want to expand the penpal program to include the boys as well. But there are more Kenyan kids who want to participate than we can accommodate right now.

We need more penpals!

This is a very carefully monitored exchange. All the letters go through our office and are checked for content that might be offensive or is just too mature.

So if you know of 6th - 8th grade girls or boys who would like to exchange letters with a contemporary in Kenya, please have them email me (judy.craig@EliminatePovertyNow.org). We'd love to have them join us!

Meet my role models: Harriet and Sam Lapkin

Just before Pesah, Harriet Lapkin (Judy's mom) presented us with the most amazing birthday present: over $5,000 for Eliminate Poverty Now from more than 30 friends and family members. What an incredible gift! Harriet had started a fundraising campaign back in December. We had no idea it was happening, and we were blown away.

Here's what we plan to do with this lovely contribution. As you may know, Sam (Judy's dad) suggested some time ago that we focus on sewing as an income-generating activity. When we were in Libore, Niger in February, we saw the success of the Pencils for Kids sewing center which was the recipient of Eliminate Poverty Now's very first grant.

The students are able to sell their work in the local market. Their products are in enough demand that within a year new graduates are able to pay off the machines they receive on microcredit at graduation. John and I became very excited about starting another center, based on what had been learned in the first one. I wrote about it in an earlier blog post (http://judyandjohn-africa-2010.blogspot.com/2011/02/monday-february-14-2011-day-6-great.html).

Last week, Hamani Djibo - a wonderful, intelligent, hardworking young man and our first and closest Libore contact - reported that his NGO had evaluated several potential locations for a new sewing center. Galbal (another village in the Libore cluster) has 72 women who are interested in learning to sew, and the village has a building they can let us use to get started. The building will accommodate the first 30-35 women. Furthermore, there are two markets nearby at which the Galbal women can sell their products, and where they will not compete with the Libore sewing center graduates.

But the village expressed that they had an additional priority: the women don't even know how to read and write. (They probably never completed primary school.) To be better tailors, as well as to operate their own businesses, they should be literate. The village asked if we would bring in not only a master tailor, but a literacy teacher as well. For their part, the community offered to construct an addition to the classroom that they have made available for the sewing center. Isn't this an amazing story!

The total cost of this expanded learning/vocational center (including teachers salaries, repair of the existing building, sewing machines, classroom furniture, supplies, etc.) will be just under $9,000. In Africa, it costs relatively little to do so much good.

Our deepest thanks to all of you who participated in this most meaningful of birthday gifts. You will be changing the lives of these women - and of the families whose lives depend on them. If any other readers of this blog would like to join us, click here to donate.

Our amazing volunteer

Eliminate Poverty Now has the most amazing volunteer. Eliana Arian is truly an extraordinary young woman. She - along with the rest of the women in her family - has taken a real interest in Eliminate Poverty Now. They do so much: collect coins in a large jar on their kitchen counter, talk about our work with others, call with ideas for how to reach out to others, and lots more.

Eliana has involved her friends in the work we're doing. She and her friend Adar spent an afternoon packing up the beautiful notecards which are sold on our website, and which we give in appreciation for larger donations.

Eliminate Poverty Now is helping all these people lift themselves out of poverty.

And this week Eliana gave a 45 minute presentation about Eliminate Poverty Now!!! She spoke to the 8th grade girls at her school, Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy, about all the work of Eliminate Poverty Now, with a special emphasis on Pads for Peace. There are about 20 girls, and lots of them want to participate in our penpal program. They will correspond with girls their age in the Sauri, Kenya Millennium Village Cluster.

The Sauri girls received the very large donation of Always pads from Procter & Gamble. Pads For Peace (with help from donors and the Congregation Agudath Israel Women's Seder) facilitated the gift, and paid for the transportation.

So if you know of any young people - and youth is a state of mind, right? - who want to volunteer, we'd love to have them. Let us know if you want help making a presentation about Eliminate Poverty Now - we have slideshows and prepared material you can share with the group. Some schools have started a penpal program (6th-8th graders, girls or boys). Other schools have run fundraisers to support a specific Eliminate Poverty Now project, like Little Rock Early Childhood Development Centre

Eliana has set a high standard, but now we have a role model to guide us!

Update on Trees for Kids

Last year, one of the first grants Eliminate Poverty Now made was $2500 for Trees for Kids. This program was initiated by Robin Mednick of Pencils for Kids and Dov Pasternak, then of ICRISAT, in response to the famine in Niger. It provided training and supplies to young people to graft fruit trees in Niger. Their wages were paid by the farmers who own the trees. At $10/tree, our grant paid for 250 trees to be grafted.

Now we have photos of the results. It's wonderful to see the kids grafting the trees in the early photos, and eating the fruit later on. I highly recommend reading Robin's comments on the photos. To do that, you need to watch the slideshow in full screen (click the little icon on the bottom right) and then click "show info" on the upper right.