JoyWO

Last year, Eliminate Poverty NOW was introduced to the Joyful Women’s Organization. This non-profit supports income-generating projects for women through its table banking program, a system in which a group of women lends to its members. This creates a virtuous cycle with interest and loan repayments being continually recycled within the group.

At that time, JoyWO’s success had been phenomenal: in 4 years, they had grown to 400 groups, 10,000 members, and over $1 million in circulation. As the size of the projects grew from quite small (a woman selling bananas near the side of the road) to more ambitious (greenhouses, poultry operations, market vegetable farming), it became clear that they would require more training and technical support. EPN provided a grant of $12,000 to train and support 600 of the most enterprising women.

In the 16 months since EPN first visited, JoyWO has grown to 1,600 groups, 30,000 women, and over $3 million being loaned out. They’ve gone from a staff of 12 to 62, almost all of whom are field officers focused on business development and technical support.

Toloek group members and Joywo staff outside the Toloek greenhouse

A group of ladies from Toloek prepare to plant tomatoes

One JoyWO group, the 19-member Toloek women’s cooperative, decided to use their funds provided by Kenya's Ministry of Irrigation to build a greenhouse to grow tomatoes. Judy, John, and Helen met 5 members of the Toloek group at the greenhouse located near the home of Annabel, the mother of two young boys. The land was chosen for the site because of its access to electricity. Annabel hosted Judy, John, and Helen for lunch during their visit. When asked how he felt about having the greenhouse located on their land, Annabel's husband said, “As long as it is helping the women, I’m happy to give the land.” And with the greenhouse came piped water. Annabel said, “I never thought I would live in a house with piped water. And now look –  I have both electricity AND piped water!”

Annabel's home, complete with electricity and running water

Annabel and Toloek club members hosted lunch

Group members Judy Koech (who runs a hardware business) and her mother-in-law, Anna, have the rest of the family excited about the greenhouse as well. Both Judy and her husband expect much good to come from the project, and her father-in-law was so excited when Judy, John, and Helen arrived, he urged Anna to hurry and told her, "Your guests are in the greenhouse.” 

Seeing the men in the family be so supportive of their wives was truly a highlight of the visit. In Kenyan society, women have traditionally not had the same rights and opportunities as men, but all of the women Judy, John, and Helen met said that both they – and their husbands – are thrilled with the changes the greenhouse will bring to their lives. 

Ruhiira, A Beautiful First Trip to Uganda

On their most recent trip to Africa, Judy and John spent two days in the Ruhiira village cluster, one of 12 clusters participating in the Millennium Villages Project (MVP). Ruhiira is located in the southwest corner of Uganda, not far from the borders with Tanzania and Rwanda. This marked John and Judy’s first visit to Uganda, and it exceeded their expectations, from the beautiful countryside, to the lovely people, to the comfortable weather. They met with MVP staff, toured the villages, visited the two Eliminate Poverty NOW project sites, and met people involved in the projects.

Members of the Kabuyanda Farmers Cooperative

The first of those projects is the Kabuyanda Grain Warehouse. The goal of the project is to increase farmer income, achieve better prices by safely storing crops after harvest, jointly negotiating selling prices, and contracting with major feeding organizations like the World Food Program. Results have been mixed. A 300 metric ton warehouse was financed by the Craig Family Foundation (precursor to EPN) and a farmers cooperative was formed with the goal of gaining 500 members. Currently, the cooperative has only 125 participating farmers and only a fraction of the warehouse capacity is being used, so there is potential to achieve significantly higher farmer participation and income generation with more proactive leadership. John and Judy officially commissioned the warehouse during their visit, which was a nice honor.

The other project they funded in Ruhiira is the Kabuyanda Women’s Craft Cooperative, a women’s cooperative that creates a variety of crafts to generate extra income for the family. Funds were provided to test a new line of beaded jewelry. The test went well, and John and Judy found a wide variety of beaded products being sold at the local co-op as well as through local retail stores.

Members of the Kabuyanda Crafts Co-op

Farmer Paul

Judy and John also had a lovely visit with Farmer Paul, a retired military man with a thirst for knowledge and openness to new ideas. He is a prime example of what a diversified and integrated approach to farming can achieve.  The MVP provided Paul with training, an $800 prized dairy cow, and a hearty breed of goats from South Africa. In addition, Paul planted a garden where he grows fruits and vegetables for sale and personal use. He grows grasses that he feeds to his cow and goats, then uses the manure to fertilize the fields. The manure also is used in a biogas system that produces the gas he cooks with, eliminating the need to cut down trees for firewood, as well as the smoke that permeates most homes. Paul has dramatically improved his standard of living. He has built a new home, financed a retail shop for his wife, and sent his kids to university. He has also given offspring from his cow and goats to other farmers in the community so that they can begin to enjoy the same benefits as him.

John and Judy were particularly impressed with the progress made in infrastructure in the cluster. A network of all weather roads has been cut through the steep terrain, connecting the villages to each other and to the outside world. A water management system has been implemented that provides 9,000 people in the cluster with safe, easy access to water. A prototype shared solar power system was installed, providing power to approximately 120 businesses and households in the area. And the government is installing power lines that will connect the cluster to the national power grid, a decision that MVP had been advocating for many years.

The major goal for economic development in the region is to increase the economic value and diversity of farming activities. Ruhiira lies in the heart of banana country, and bananas are the cornerstone of the economy and local diet. There is much to be said about this subject--we are preparing a blog post dedicated to it! 

All in all it was a wonderful and rewarding trip.

Guest Post by Dov Pasternak: The Transformation of the Sadore Village

We are thrilled to have another guest post this week! This post is from renowned agricultural scientist, and Eliminate Poverty NOW Advisory Committee member, Dov Pasternak. Dov has written a wonderful article about the transformation of the Sadore Village. Please scroll through the pdf below, or read it on Scribd.

The Transformation of the Sadore Village by Anna Drury* (*please note that the article is written by Dov Pasternak, and posted to Scribd by Anna Drury*)

Lead Farmers, a New Millennium Villages Project!

We are pleased to announce that Eliminate Poverty NOW and Millennium Promise are teaming up again to start a Lead Farmer project in the Millennium Villages cluster in Mayange, Rwanda!

One of the challenges in helping rural farmers upgrade their farming practices is providing them with on-going, cost effective technical support. Extension services, which farmers in the U.S. and other developed countries rely on, are largely non-existent in Africa. The "lead farmer" concept is an innovative attempt to provide extension services with a cost effective and scalable model.

The concept groups together 30-50 local farmers, headed by a "lead farmer" selected by the group for being particularly skilled and progressive in his approach. This lead farmer then works closely with an extension agent and shares the knowledge gained with the rest of his group. In this way, the reach of the extension agent is greatly magnified. One extension agent can work with as many as 20 "lead farmers," thereby sharing knowledge with as many as 1,000 farmers. Millennium Promise has used this concept with cocoa farmers in their village cluster in Ghana with encouraging results. This marks the first time the concept is being introduced in Rwanda.  

EPN will provide funds to pay salaries for the extension agents, purchase of seeds and fertilizer for the lead farmers, and training in the development of business plans and loan applications.

The program is well thought out and offers good prospects for enhancing crop yields and economic returns for the 2-3,000 farmers who will participate in the program. This project has the potential to become a highly cost effective model for providing extension services, and addresses a critical need in agricultural development on the continent of Africa.

Keep your eye on the blog for more news as the project gets under way!

Professional Video: Lunapads One4Her Distribution

We are so pleased to share this professional video with you about the Lunapads One4Her distribution of kits containing washable sanitary pads at Little Rock ECD. You will see some familiar faces, like Judy and Little Rock founder, Lilly Oyare, as well as meet some of the girls who are being directly helped by this amazing gift. If you missed Judy's post about their experiences at the first day of distribution, you can read it here.

Once again, we can't thank Madaleine Shaw and Lunapads enough for their generosity with the One4Her program, and AFRIpads, who manufactured the kits.

We hope you enjoy the video!

Guest Post: Towards The End of Poverty? The Case of Mwandama Millennium Village in Malawi

This week we have a guest post for you! 

Rodrick Chirambo is responsible for the agricultural cooperatives in the Mwandama (Malawi) Millennium Villages Cluster. These would be the parallel organizations to the Kigarama Farmers' Cooperative in Kabuyanda (Uganda) where John and Judy funded a grain warehouse before the establishment of Eliminate Poverty NOW. Rodrick has written this post to inform our network of the wonderful work being done in the Mwandama cluster. We hope you enjoy the post!

TOWARDS THE END OF POVERTY?  – THE CASE OF MWANDAMA MILLENNIUM VILLAGE IN MALAWI

By Rodrick Chirambo, Business & Cooperatives Development Coordinator, Millennium Villages Project - Mwandama

Some say poverty is a fact of life. It is here to stay; we just have to learn to live with it! In 2005 Malawi was described by UN officials as a “perfect storm” of hunger, poverty and disease and represented the plight of some 1 billion people around the globe trapped far below the first rung on the development ladder. In the same year, the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), comprised of a team of Malawi’s rural development experts, started working in the village of Mwandama, in one of the poorest regions of the country. Eight years later, the picture first described by those officials seems like a bad dream.

The Mwandama community has moved from perpetual food insecurity to being a food basket for the surrounding district of Zomba. The average distance to the nearest clinic is now about 5 Km compared to 25 Km before the start of the project. Over 70 percent of people are sleeping under insecticide treated mosquito nets compared to only 13 percent eight years ago. Primary school attendance has increased by 96 percent. Infrastructure and local institutions have improved tremendously. Wherever you look in Mwandama, you see people who have been empowered, are able to support themselves and their families, and invest back into the community.

Fast tracking development takes hard work but with the proper steps, it can be done.  As a Malawi citizen and the business development coordinator in Mwandama, I can proudly say that I have witnessed this transformation. I am part of a wonderful team of local development workers passionate about improving the livelihoods of their compatriots.

The building blocks of development are simple and readily accessible - community-led action, visionary and motivated local leadership, supportive Government policy, dedicated and knowledgeable staff and technological advancement. When these are in place, with good quality programming and the requisite financial resources, you are on your way.

As the local staff of the Millennium Villages Project, we have fostered community ownership of all development activities. The community chooses its own destiny. We’re here to help build systems of delivery and provide the essential knowledge that will build their capacity to get to where they want to be. By and by, small changes appear and accumulate into permanent transformation.

Of course, let’s not celebrate before the deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals is reached in two years time. It is not yet a done deal and there’s much work to do beyond. It is time to ensure that the capacity of the community to maintain and manage the gains achieved so far is enhanced. This entails setting up systems for continued access to improved technologies; building institutions, such as business cooperatives, to support the farmers in accessing farm inputs and market linkages; creating a network of volunteers to promote girls attendance in schools; developing a cadre of community health workers; and building valuable partnerships with stakeholders.

With the support of wonderful partners like Eliminate Poverty Now, the Millennium Villages Project is proving that it is a matter of time before we end extreme poverty in our communities. Together, we are on the verge of a breakthrough that will help rural Africa not only get a grip on the development ladder, but also energize communities to climb higher. I will say this again – it can be done. With small targeted investments, huge changes can be realized. It is within our power. Visit www.millenniumvillages.org and get involved.

**The views expressed here are my personal ones and do not represent those of the Millennium Villages Project.

Watch Now: Little Rock Scholars Professional Video

Have you seen this amazing video about the Little Rock ECD scholarship program? We are so pleased to share this professional video with you, to give you a chance to meet some of the kids and see how they live, and the profound impact that the Little Rock Scholars program has on their lives. We hope you enjoy watching the video--as always, we would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section!

If you would like more information about the Little Rock Scholars program, please read our post from last week. If you're interested in donating, click here. You can also contact our Director of Operations, Helen Greenberg, by email (hpgreenberg@eliminatepovertynow.org) or telephone (908.725.2325) with your questions or pledges. 

Making a Priceless Investment in the Future of Remarkable Young Africans

In this world of haves and have-nots, the students who graduate from Little Rock Inclusive ECD Centre in the slums of Nairobi Kenya are in a different class of “less fortunate.” Tucked in among hills of garbage, their homes often lack electricity and running water, and it’s common to have 8-10 people living in a 150 square foot space. Just walking through the alleyways of Kibera, Kenya’s largest slum, is an assault on the senses.

Enduring hardship that no adult should have to face, these kids have wisdom and courage beyond their years. It is amazing to meet them. One can’t help but wonder how they have not been crushed by the devastating conditions in which they live. They know what it means to be left behind, and fully recognize that education is their way out. Helping them escape the slums in order to achieve their dreams is a priceless investment.

We are asking you to give them the education to escape the slums and lift themselves, and their families, out of extreme poverty. We hope you will take six and a half minutes to watch this video about the scholarship program to get a real sense of who these kids are and how they live, and how this program changes their lives.

You can offer support by choosing to:

1.     Sponsor a student for a full 4-year scholarship = $4,000*

-You will receive the student's name, photo, and the opportunity to establish an on-going personal relationship for years to come.

2.     Sponsor a student for 1 year of school = $1,000*

-You will receive the student's name, photo and letter of thanks from the student for supporting their secondary education.

With your generous donations last school year, Eliminate Poverty NOW sent 6 of these talented kids, whom you met in the above video, to secondary school with full scholarships.

Now there is a second group of seventeen students scheduled to take the exams this fall, including Emily and others. You can watch each of them telling their stories on YouTube.

These kids are Kibera’s best and brightest. They are hardworking, determined, extraordinarily motivated, and amazingly resilient. They give us hope because they are an inspiration—a triumph of the human spirit. We hope you will seize this opportunity to help change a child’s life forever.

You can click here to donate or contact Helen Greenberg by email (hpgreenberg@eliminatepovertynow.org) or telephone (908.725.2325) with your questions or pledges. 

*Can be financed as pledges paid out over time

The Numbers Are In: 2012 Annual Report for Eliminate Poverty NOW

In the spirit of transparency, we are proud to share our 2012 Annual Report with you. We hope you will take a little time to scroll through the report and celebrate all that was accomplished last year with us. We couldn't have done it without your amazing support and generosity!

2012 EPN Annual Report - FINAL by Anna Drury