A Long Time Coming

Ken Lewis and Satyan Mishra - leader of Drishtee

Finally, just a few days ago, on March 5th I returned to India after a two-year pandemic hiatus.  I will be away for four weeks.  A long time for a single trip to one place, but not long enough to catch up completely.  I was last there in January 2020, returning home days before the news about Covid began to spread.  At that time, the Greater Impact Foundation and Drishtee Sustainable Communities was entering the first year of a new program to help create measurable livelihoods for 450,000 highly marginalized people, mostly women in last mile rural villages throughout India, an ambitious project made even more challenging by the pandemic.

As you might imagine, endeavoring to create hundreds of thousands of livelihoods in rural India and track the values such an effort is intended to create is daunting.  Sometimes I find it hard to believe.  And given my ingrained skepticism (I am a native New Yorker) not being able to travel and methodically “kick the tires” of our progress is somewhat disconcerting.  If not for the team at Drishtee, zoom, google meets and whatsapp, the inability to travel would have driven me a little crazy.  Even with that linkage I still am nervous about our performance versus plan.  The challenges we face go well beyond just the interruption created by the pandemic.   Frankly, that nervousness has carried over everywhere we have investments whether it be India, Africa or Central America.  By the time you read this I will be in Delhi and the marathon will be underway.  This trip will also include time with our other partners in India including RangSutra, Essmart and Grassroots Energy.

One of the many faces of India

We are going to try and share this four-week experience with our readers with daily posts.  There will be updates on our progress in the villages along with travel updates around the country that provide a glimpse of the vitality of life in India.  The goal is to give readers a flavor for what it is like to constantly be on the road in a world so vibrant it can be both exhilarating and overwhelming at the same time.  Village life will be a big focus as will be the people we meet and work with, as well as the unexpected.   That is more than likely when in India.

Growing Hope

Nicaragua is the second poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean.  Yet, despite important socioeconomic progress Nicaragua still faces headwinds that stalls its development.  At the national level 39% of the population lives in poverty.  8% lives in extreme poverty, meaning more than 2.3 million cannot meet their basic needs.   These numbers are even greater in the rural areas.  This area is largely populated by indigent small farmers struggling to make ends meet.

These farmers face many challenges.  Two that dominate are low productivity and poor market access. The farmers have limited production capacity.  Inadequate quality inputs and lack of knowledge on efficient sustainable techniques coupled with poor access to the markets are also impacted by the local effects of climate change.  So, in 2018 a pilot project for about 400 smallholder farmers was conceived to see if the alchemy combining animals (pigs, in particular) from Heifer International, access to water made possible with KickStart International manual pumps and biodigesters from Sistema Biobolsa along with high quality inputs and training could improve impact.

The results of this joint effort spearheaded by the Greater Impact Foundation and the American Nicaragua Foundation are still flowing in, but one story resonates and gives hope that the combination of productive assets from likeminded funders can and does work.  And sometimes do even more.  The project was aptly named Growing Hope.

Recently, our partner on the ground in Nicaragua, the American-Nicaragua Foundation led by Nicolás Arqüello headed up north and visited one of the biodigester + pig farm beneficiaries who has made a successful microenterprise out of biol (organic fertilizer).  The biodigester’s primary function is to provide organic fertilizer for the farm which typically can foster improvements to crop productivity up to 30%.  However, even the smallest digester is so productive that it often produces more fertilizer than the small farm needs.   Along with the improvement in his farm productivity Arnaulfo, the farmer, sells between 200-600 liters of excess biol per month for $8 each. His variable costs are about $5/liter. So, he’s making about $1,000-$1,200 per month in profits from the fertilizer alone. Not bad! 

Our hope is to align several funders along with the Greater Impact Foundation to continue to develop programs like Growing Hope and take them to scale.  The combination of quality inputs and training, biodigesters, access to water and animals along with willing farmers like Arnaulfo is the alchemy which does transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Deadly Dugout or Long-term Logistics Solution

In our last blog we highlighted the challenges subsistence farmers faced in remote western Uganda to protect their farmland from hungry wild elephants by erecting a “Beehive Fence” to frighten them away from their crops. Their effort freed up vast tracks of land along the edge of the Impenetrable Forest to provide additional land to grow more food. While the idea of a beehive fence is not new, building one in a remote region amidst the mountains of the Impenetrable Forest is especially difficult under conditions with minimal available resources. Raising The Village, one of our partners in Uganda led this effort, designing the fence and working with the farmers to build and maintain it. It is an idea that works. It is just another way to further enable the farmers’ capabilities to manage their own affairs.

Raising The Village’s holistic model for development in remote regions revolves around a fundamental focus on key foundational elements for sustainable development including water & food security, health and WASH training, husbandry and logistics. The beehive fence project is a unique initiative suited perfectly for some communities, but not necessarily appropriate for others. Logistics, on the other hand, is an issue that virtually everyone must face. Whether it is inaccessible roads or none whatsoever, moving goods from point A to point B, from the field to the market for sale is a challenge for almost all. One village’s logistical challenge required another innovative solution.

The village, not far from Kisoro near the Rwandan border is accessible primarily by water across a large, beautiful lake. To move goods from the village to the market villagers used dugout canoes. Small and unstable, these dugouts, even with outriggers, were as much an obstacle to moving goods as a solution. Each dugout could hold only a small amount of goods, enough to fill it, but also enough to weigh it down, making it unsafe once the early morning calm passed, the wind rose, and dangerous waves lashed the low-slung overloaded boat. People died. Goods were lost. By early morning no one would venture out for fear of disaster. This had been the status quo for many years.

RTV’s solution, like the beehive fence, was not novel. It did not force the villagers to embrace an idea that was alien to them or overwhelming to consider. What it did require was a commitment to take on the responsibility to manage and maintain the crafts in a sustainable manner. With that commitment, the Greater Impact Foundation and RTV funded the cost and construction of three-ton handmade canoes, each with a small reliable outboard engine. RTV would oversee the construction, but the village would do it and take responsibility for its maintenance, operation and ongoing cost of operations including the engine and fuel.

The boats were hewn by local craftsmen. They were large enough to provide stability for six times the goods of the unsafe dugouts and that stability along with the motor allowed them to use the craft throughout the day. More goods moved. The death rate dropped to zero. Villager pride and confidence increased. So much so that they marked their boats with their village’s own brand. Then something remarkable happened. Other villages on the lake took

notice. They wanted in. However, they were not yet part of the RTV family and had not made the commitment to engage the RTV model for their respective villages. So, they figured out a way to pay the village fleet (two boats) for their time to transport their goods for them. No less, they signed up for the RTV intervention. The accompanying pictures tell the story. What cannot be understated is the sustainable market value, social capital and unwitting scalable opportunity the overall effort manifested.

The Elephant and the Bee: Peaceful Co-Existence

I suspect that during the pandemic and the sundry lockdowns we have all had to bear, many of us have spent that “quality home time” digging through memories from the past. For me that means photos! Recently, I came across a few from 2016 taken while I was in western Uganda near the Impenetrable Forest not far from where the iconic mountain gorillas live. It is a rugged, yet beautiful area, not inaccessible, but indeed difficult to reach. I went there with Raising The Village, a terrific enterprise that the Greater Impact Foundation has been supporting for some time.

RTV’s holistic model addresses the key drivers of poverty in a region virtually off the grid, even absent from the census; a region of villages that functions largely on the barter system as money is hard to come by. Their initial focus usual centers around assessment of water availability and quality, agriculture development, logistics, health and more. True as well; it’s no coincidence that each community often has challenges unique to themselves. Logistics is a great example. There are some great stories to be told.

The model revolves around a village graduation model among other things, and, as you might imagine, buy in from local village leaders combined with the administration of that relationship between those leaders and RTV is essential.

It comes as no surprise; agriculture is the primary source of income in this part of the world. When something gets in the way of that it creates all sorts of compounding challenges. Every effort is taken to ensure the best possible agricultural output. Work gets done with training, ongoing support through graduation, quality inputs, water availability, access to markets, all underpinned by a collective local community wide effort. Collectively, many things make the model work but a rigor and thirst for quality data to help guide decision-making in the field and for the future is a key attribute. Equally so, note that virtually everyone working on the ground is Ugandan.

Now, in context, I can tell the story about the elephants and the bees.

One of the projects that has been completed (photos from installation period) is a beehive fence to deter elephants from grazing outside the Impenetrable Forest on fragile, critically important farmland. The fence unlocks hundreds, if not more of good farmland acreage that the villagers stopped planting because of the elephants. The fence is simple, but it works because elephants and bees are not a match in heaven. Concrete posts are anchored apart like fenceposts for great distances. Heavy duty wire is strung along the post line with a beehive hung on the wire between each post. When a grazing elephant sniffs out the farmland and

heads that way they confront the fence, rattle the wire, thus the hives and voila there are bees everywhere. Did I say, we are in Africa. These are African bees!

On the other hand, erecting the fence is an incredible task. All the raw materials, concrete fence posts, hives, fence wire etc. are brought into the mountains largely by foot. Tools remain relatively crude. Conditions can be debilitating. It takes time. I have attached some pictures, but they do not do it justice. Woman along with men did all the work. It is backbreaking work in difficult conditions. Most wore secondhand shoes, sandals or went barefoot. In my boots, I fell crossing a small brook, doused my camera and was without for the rest of my trip.

But the farmland, a lot of it, is available for planting. And now, imagine wearing and working in the beekeeper’s suit in the picture (one of my favorites) in these challenging conditions.

Next week I’ll share one of the logistics stories. I promise. It has nothing to do with semis.

Thank God 2016 is Over

It is December 30th and I cannot wait for the year to end.  And, when I say something like that, at this time of year, I imagine that most readers will nod and say to themselves, “I know what you mean.”

But it is not what you think. 

Americans might say, of course, given the interminable presidential election process and its outcome anyone would want to forget 2016.  Citizens in countries elsewhere, Rwanda, the DAR, Burundi, The Philippines might agree.  Ugly politics has certainly discolored 2016.  But, history is replete with political dyspepsia.

The end of every year also brings with it the obligatory family holiday reunions and the necessary accompanying chaos.  Our house, or I should say my Mother-in-Law’s house was invaded by nine adults (all related) and three dogs (probably related in some convoluted way) for a week of frivolity, fun and the anticipated familial stress intensified by sharing close quarters more suitable for two or three.  Family is always fun to be around, particularly when you don’t get to see them that often.  But the stress and work required for it to be memorable (and I mean in a good way) is another reason to be happy that the year is almost over.  Again, nothing has really changed.

The end of the year always causes everyone to reminisce.   Ah, the good old days.  Wasn’t life so much easier.  Weren’t the fifties grand?  I could go outside and play until dark without fear.  I could eat a Twinkie without the risk of poisoning my offspring.  I could crawl under my school desk and be safe from a nuclear event.  Terrorism was the bully in the schoolyard. The world wasn’t about to end with the next major climate event. The news used to be news.

Famous and infamous people who were lauded and many who were not are added to the countdown list of who died in 2016.  The closer to the end of the year someone of modest fame or infamy dies is inversely proportional to the outpouring of goodwill or scorn accorded to that person that no one really, ever though much about …ever, when they were alive.

The last gasp of the year from late November through January 2 is crammed with too much food, too many people often in spaces way too small, too much forced frivolity, too many remembrances of less than memorable merit and songs that people like but really do not want to hear more than once lest they prefer the obligatory seasonal torture.   Like egg nog.  You know egg nog is not meant for consumption when a dog known to eat inedible objects won’t touch it.

Yes, I am a little grouch-like when it comes to the “Holiday Season.”   It is both too forced and worth it at the same time. It is enjoyable yet rife with much that we could do with and without.  I always wonder what life would be like if we celebrated yearlong like we do when it is about to end.  Goodwill to all, all year long, whether you like it or not.  But, I am lucky, because that is why I am looking forward to next year.

Now I can now refocus my attention on the Greater Impact Foundation where measured goodwill throughout the year is the modus operandi.  Yes, I do love the holidays despite all the excess baggage that comes with them and the time they consume, but for me being able to celebrate the opportunity to help others all year long is the greatest gift.   Perhaps, this is why I truly feel addicted to the work, so when I am distracted by Bing Crosby’s White Christmas or one more end-of-year countdown I do think about how joyous it will be when the calendar rolls over to 2017 and I can really get back to doing what I love all of the time.

All Across Africa

A the Basket Center conducting a product quality check

My job as a funder in the for-profit social impact space is to seek out enterprises that have a combination of a great product or service, a flexible, yet logical business methodology that can function under strenuous conditions often in unforgiving places and the ability to measure results, financial and impact.  All of this is key.  It must be focused on enabling those in greatest need, offering a sustainable pathway to a better quality of life. Not surprisingly, when this occurs it is likely that the talent behind the business is very strong, focused, driven, empathetic, yet ruthlessly self-critical, willing to constantly re-examine what doesn’t work and continuously improve what does.  The confluence of these factors is a joy to discover and this is just the case with the latest addition to the Greater Impact Foundation portfolio, All Across Africa.

All Across Africa is led by Greg Stone and Alicia Wallace, two individuals with different skills but a common vision that combined offers any funder a team that engenders confidence.  Friendly, no nonsense, experienced, open-minded, yet with strong opinions with a grounded business background coupled with an appealing social consciousness.  They do not know, but obviously will now, that when first I met them I could sense a drive after about a ten-minute conversation that compelled me to want to travel and conduct due diligence in Rwanda.  I was not disappointed. 

All Across Africa has all of the ingredients for long term success.  Solid talent, a simple economical business plan that is market connected, metrics that can be trusted and a vision that has the potential to truly expand all across Africa, or at least a good part of it.  It is a rather big continent.  More so, they have some of the highest quality African artisan products I have seen to date.  Originating in Rwanda, they have expanded to Uganda and Ghana and given the uniqueness of the tribal cultures across the continent and the array of indigenous products available the new product pipeline appears limitless.

I only had one full day to assess the business on the ground.  This included meeting a women’s artisan co-op, observing how the raw material, sisal, (agave sisalana) that feeds their current line is sourced and talking with the women about the impact working with All Across Africa has had on their lives.  

This is a rough roadside video and an introduction to a co-op of weavers working for All Across Africa, a social enterprise connecting weavers and their beautiful baskets to western markets

I then visited the “Basket Center,” a central hub where the sundry co-ops gather twice each week to bring the sisal for dyeing, drop off completed product to be shipped and pick up the patterns and quantities for the next products to be woven. Then, finally before departing for my return flight to Nairobi, I visited an artisan in her home to learn and see the impact All Across Africa has had on her life.

In between, travelling from one location to the next, the most important, least obvious, due diligence occurs.  In close quarters when the conversation is more intimate, when one question or comment leads to another subject, when personal character, sublime, curious, thoughtful, open and unvarnished emerges does the true nature of the leadership unfolds before you.  It is not uncommon to be on a long ride, sometimes on difficult roads in heavy traffic with little creature comforts that someone turns to me and says, “We’re here.”  I have no idea how long it has been.  Sometimes I have forgotten that when I set out it was hot and uncomfortable.  Often, I regret not paying more attention to the scenery (though I am getting better), only to realize that I have been deep in conversation that informs me in a way that no other part of the due diligence can.

Check out All Across Africa online www.allacrossafrica.org The story is great.  So is the product

Musings About the Gift of Choice

This is a little long, somewhat off-kilter, personal and not specifically about the great organizations the Greater Impact Foundation (GIF) supports, but it does reflect how working for GIF makes one think and feel.  It is also a little late.  A week has passed since Thanksgiving, over a month since returning from Africa and I am still catching up; ruminating about my experience and the meaning of goodwill.

It is Saturday morning after Thanksgiving; early, no one awake except the wobblily, old, half blind dog trying to find the door in the dark to get out, probably to go to the bathroom. 

Cody is blind.   The glasses are a different story.

Of course, I’m awake too.  Not quite as old.  Not quite as wobblily, no need to go out, so to speak… just yet, but certainly not ready to get up either. But I cannot stop the mind from racing ahead.  Is it hard to move the host when the mind tells you to get up?  It used to be easy.  Up.  Out the door.  On the move.  That was then.  This is now.  The old dog looks up towards me, smelling, not seeing me as I anthropomorphize and says, “Are you nuts?  Of course, it's early, but if you do not get your ass out of the bed I am going to go right here, right now and that, my old brother, is something you do not want to deal with in the pre-dawn chill!”  So, I got up.

It used to be easier.  For both of us.  But, now I am up, frantically searching in the dark for my pants and shirt, trying to sequence what needs to happen in the next 30-seconds before I end up on my knees doing the last thing I want to do this morning, cleaning up after man’s best friend (ha!) in my Mother-in-Law’s house the day after a tryptophan overdose, and a long flight home.  

The dog went right back to bed, curled up in his blanket and passed out probably until next Thanksgiving. 

Me, not so lucky.  The key had been turned in the ignition and while my body was still just cranking up, my mind was in gear, long out the door.   That is why I am here right now writing this down.  No one else is awake.  Why should they be?  I’m not even fully awake.  My body is still waiting for one complete revolution of the blood stream.   My back is still waiting for forever how much time it takes to stop reminding me that I have one.  My brain is revved up, but would prefer the help of a strong cup of coffee to sync my digestion system with my circulatory system so that my brain stops complaining about what the hell I am doing awake when I should be comatose dreaming about something less compelling than commode communing that I know will make me less cranky.  A lot less cranky.  Then suddenly, I realize that I must be channeling the old dog.  Except that he has that canine capacity to suddenly lapse into a sleep state and forget it all and I do not.  I am now awake and the only capacity I have is to begin to feel guilty about what I am complaining about when I know deep down how damn lucky I am.  I must be Jewish, or Catholic or paranoid or marginally insane, but, alas, that is the way it is.  Deep down, something else I am not aware of (Freud could probably tell me) keeps telling me to stop complaining.  I know how lucky I am. I have the blessing of a cohesive family.  Everyone is reasonably healthy.  Marginal insanity is my private reserve.  No one is starving (remember Thanksgiving just passed) and I have a job that constantly reminds me that there are those in the world who have no time to complain because they are too busy just surviving.

Thanksgiving is a mindful time of year.  I know the essence of the concept has morphed over time and that likely history of its origin and evolution is questionable.  Historians do that sort of reconstruction, building something from disparate parts to make a point that is likely a little fuzzy.  Yet, the concept of Thanksgiving, even if it has changed shape over time is worth dwelling on.  It is worth it because it offers us all the opportunity to cherish what is dearest while reminding us that it is a blessing to have the luxury to do so.  And, even though I am now awake way to early, my body is in revolt and I am filling time writing this until I am civil enough to talk to another human, I do appreciate more than I let one how lucky I am. 

I could detail that now, but the list is long, so suffice to say that I am aware.  And, since everyone else is blissfully asleep, I am writing it down because unlike the cranky, old dog, now sleeping like he is dead, I am awake and wanted you to know. Choice is a luxury.

About a third of the planet has little or no choice.  Sustenance is a daily struggle.  I always knew that, but on-the-road for the Greater Impact Foundation makes me realize what a blessing choice really is.  The holidays are here.  Everyone should enjoy them.  But, try not to forget.

NURU International Cracks the Fund Raising Code

On the wall in NURU's office in Isibania, Kenya

I have never met Jake Harriman, the founder of NURU, but given that on behalf of the Greater Impact Foundations we are considering support, I though it more than prudent to get to know him as much as possible.  So, I found this video on the NURU website. It is worth a few minutes.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLIuL39uIQo

NURU Headquarters Isibania, Kenya

So, it is clear from the video that Jake has his head firmly affixed to his shoulders.  And, from my recent due diligence in Isibania, Kenya, and the surrounding villages adjacent to the Tanzanian border, the interventions NURU has applied to enable the poor clearly works. 

The progress they have made building a leadership network, not only of committed NURU staff, but including local village elders who live with the challenges of extreme poverty day in and day out is impressive.  And the results speak for themselves.  The four interventions that Jake refers to in the video, agricultural training, financial inclusion, health care and education were on full display on my field visits.  Of the four, some are more robust than others as they are at different stages of maturity.  However, all are trending in the right direction.

 On the agriculture & financial Inclusion side essentially everything begins with training and initial inputs (seeds). 

NURU's Kenyan staff

The NURU team of 44 field trainers (all Kenyan) teach farmers in groups of 8 – 15, visiting farmers on a weekly basis after initial training.  There are roughly  2,125 farmers in the network.  This network is made up of local cooperatives of anywhere from 25 – 200 farmers with a rotating locally elected leadership team including a chairman, secretary and treasurer.  Farmers are given an initial one time zero interest loan of about 8,400 Kenyan Shillings ($83 USD).  This allows for the purchase of qualified seed, fertilizers and pesticides.  But first they are required to go through training.

 The results are impressive and, of course, I am sure that generally they select the best performing farmers to visit, so it is important for me to visit the full range including some who have dropped out of the co-op so I can fully understand what is happening as they scale.  An average farmer has one acre of land on which more often than not they are growing corn.  Before the intervention the yield from this one acre ranged between 2 – 4 bags (90 kgs./bag).  After the intervention yields jump to 10 – 14 bags. Surely, other farmers do not achieve this output, but it is equally true that the drive of the individual farmer plays a big role in the outcomes.

 Farmers are required to contribute to a cooperation savings & loan program weekly and cannot remain a part of the cooperative unless they repay their loans in full before the next planting cycle.  For some farmers this gain covers key items like putting on iron roof on their home (replacing a thatched roof), paying school fees (expensive), costs for the next seasonal planting which could include diversification to other crops, as well as saving a small sum for the future.

 This is just an example, but clearly one can see a pathway to sustainability at the farm level, especially when one discovers that participation in the loan program with full repayment is well above 95%.  I think that one of the big reasons the participation is so high is because of the quality of the leadership at the cooperative level along with the ongoing support of the field officers.

An articulate Co-op Chairman

So, at the beneficiary level we can see a pathway out of poverty.  The bigger question is absent donor funding how does NURU continue to scale.  There is an answer, though admittedly it is still evolving.

 NURU has two big for-profit enterprises at different stages of development, an egg business and a decentralized dairy business.  Pilots for both have been completed, though the egg business is much further along.  A Kenyan ex-Unilever/Nestle commodities executive has joined NURU.  His story is interesting but tangential to this story. This is what I have learned.

 The egg business is up and running currently with 30,000 layers (hens) scaling to 100,000 this October.  I visited the new ten-acre production facility upon my return to Kisumu yesterday.  It is massive.  I now know more about the egg business in Kenya than I ever would have conceived possible.  Perhaps it is good for this conversation and idle cocktail chatter at the most, but I found it compelling.  I have rough numbers, but I will receive shortly the full plan with the P & L.  In short, the business will do two big things.  Once it breaks even it will generate annually somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 K USD annually which will be ploughed back into NURU’s non-profit side to allow them to scale and serve more farmers in southwest Kenya.  Equally important, the egg business will buy all of the maize for chicken feed for up to 700 farmers directly eliminating the middle man and as the farmers diversify they will also buy their soybean, millet, sunflower and sorghum crops giving them direct market connectivity.  Currently, NURU acts as the middleman on behalf of the farmers, aggregating crops from the cooperatives and selling on their behalf.  This will continue but eventually be displaced by the direct purchase of feed raw materials for the egg business.

 The diary business is less developed, but the plan is interesting.  Some farmers have no livestock.  Many have at least one cow.  Some have several.  These are local cows that produce two to six liters of milk daily, enough for subsistence and maybe a few shillings in the market.  The plan, over time, as they have done with seeds, provide small loans so that all farmers in the cooperatives can have at least two cows.  The magic is in the use of artificial insemination from Jersey cows who can produce up to 20 liters per day.  Just as they are doing with the egg business NURU will aggregate all the milk process it and return the profits to NURU’s non-profit side to further scale.  Farmers will have cows for milk and meat or sale as meat once the cattle dairy productivity declines, which it does.  This is also true with the chicken business.

 So, that is it in a nutshell.  NURU has a business model that when fully operational will self-fund their non-profit initiatives.  It is a great model, one which I know other non-profits who must continually reach out to donors to do the good work they do might think about.  I understand it won’t work for everyone, but for those it does it is a beautiful thing.

A Transformative Story

Joseph Ojuma

It would be foolish to suggest that the story I am about to share is one of a kind.  Tales of the human spirit can be found everywhere and history is replete with them.  But when those unscripted stories are revealed first hand, conveyed from the heart, often in the most unlikely places, they can be transformative.  Perhaps, this is why, in spite of the challenges of travelling to places difficult to reach, where just getting to the location where the story, often impromptu, often brief, often taking place beneath the relentless equatorial sun in the middle of a corn field sowed for sustenance revitalizes that spirit, reminding us that life is a blessing never to take for granted.  This is one of those stories.  Simple, straightforward, from the heart.  Powerful.

Joseph Ojuma, a father of eight including his grandchildren, lives on a small farm in Busia, Kenya a few kilometers from the Ugandan border.  He is sixty and has set aside time this Saturday morning before heading off for his grandfather’s funeral to meet with me and the team from KickStart International to share his story about how a simple irrigation pump powered by hand has changed, not only his life, but those of his neighbor as well.  He is scrupulously dressed in his finest threadbare second or third hand suit.  Clean shaven with tattered note pad in hand he has prepared for this special visit from the mzungu (foreigner – white man) from some place he likely has heard of but equally likely cannot conceive in any comprehensible form.   He has set out chairs and a table in the ever scarce shade and invites us to sit.  He would like to show us something. 

View fullsize

Tracking weekly revenue

Set down in writing Joseph shows me his weekly accounting of the income he has made from selling his crops that he now makes throughout the year, a direct result of being able to grow crops during the dry season when supply is low and prices are high. In the beginning this miraculous $30 pump was a group purchase rotated among 27 villagers, but now he has his own.  His children are all in school. 

Water catchment feeds Joseph's KickStart hand pump

He has dug a well to source water to reach the parts of his farm the local stream does not reach.  He has a home with a corrugated metal roof, enough food for the family and more.  His life has stabilized and he sees a future for his family.  But that is not what is amazing about Joseph’s story. In fact, his story is common for virtually anyone who has been fortunate enough to acquire a KickStart pump, a simple, durable hand powered device that has changed the agricultural landscape of subsistence farmers across western Kenya.  What is amazing is what he told me about what happened to him once he was able to grow crops during the dry season.

One day upon returning to his village from the local market he found, as he said in his own words, “my naked farm.”  Thieves had stolen his crop, a story I have heard before.  He was penniless and life was already difficult.  One would think that Joseph would throw up his hands and bemoan his lot in life.  But what Joseph did is the exact opposite. 

Mud bricks drying in the sun

He set out immediately to make bricks to sell for five shillings a piece ($.05) or seven shillings delivered to keep his farm afloat until the next dry season crop could be harvested. Have you ever watched someone at work in the equatorial sum making mud bricks?  Was he in his sixties?  Did he still have all of the daily responsibilities that come with a large extended family in western Kenya?  Was he smiling as he toiled away?  Did he complain for a moment about the thieves?  Or his bad luck?  No, he just did what he had to do to survive and he did it with grace.

Today Joseph has recovered.  His neighbors helped.  His family helped and that simple KickStart hand pump has transformed his life once again.  When I asked him what he was going to do next he pointed at the unfarmed land beyond his own near the river and said, “I am going to buy that land and plant it using the pump.  Maybe you will help?”  I smiled at him knowing full well I could not do what he does so well.  Nor could I do it with the grace he exudes.  I smiled at him and said, “It appears to me you do not need my help.”  And, while that is not completely true the fact is that that simple pump has empowered Joseph in a way that one can only understand when you visit his farm well off the road in the dusty rural environment of Busia in western Kenya.  Life is a challenge, but grace is a powerful force.  As I left his farm, once again I turned to John, my host and guide and shook my head and said, “The power of the human spirit is mind boggling especially when you see the obstacles facing people like Joseph.  I know he said he was honored for us to visit his farm, though truthfully, it was I that was honored to meet him and here his story.  The pump has transformed Joseph’s life, and people like Joseph have transformed mine.”

This is a True Story

Pit trench of Ginger. Notice the trees providing shade.

I just finished due diligence with an interesting social enterprise in Kamuli, Uganda.  Uganda Farm is working with the abject poor teaching them the advantage of growing, in addition to their subsistence crops, ginger.  Here is the math.

In Kamuli, one acre of corn, culturally the most important subsistence crop, generates one kilogram.  At the current market prices that equates to 500,000 Ugandan shillings per harvest or about $150 USD at the current exchange rate.  Two cycles of corn per year are possible, though climate change has brought on drought conditions that makes two cycles iffy.

Conversely, one acre of ginger, a cash crop relatively unknown in Kamuli generates ten kilograms.  At the current market prices that equates to 10,000 kilograms, 10x the corn or in perfect conditions almost $20,000 at today’s exchange rate.  Only one cycle is possible per year.  But, the delta is startling.  Two corn cycles = $300.  One ginger cycle = $20,000.  One would think that common sense would make the choice simple.  So, what’s the catch?

There are a number of variables that intrude.  Most subsistence farmers have little land, maybe one acre, possibly two.  In their effort to make the most of it they plant whatever will grow. 

On one farm, one of the poorest farmers I have ever met (I included pics of his home and living conditions) 

Kamuli Subsistence Farmer's Home

One plastic chair for furniture, filthy mattresses & blankets, a recipe for illness

On one farm, one of the poorest farmers I have ever met (I included pics of his home and living conditions) grew everything from avocados (the trees were gargantuan), coffee, fruit trees (oranges, small sweet tomatoes, mangoes, corn, potatoes and more.  Uganda Farm convinced him to cross crop ginger in the spaces between everything else pit style.  This method uses shallow trenches running the length and width of the space available in the shade of the other larger trees.  Manure and water is all that is needed for the ginger to flourish and the shade cover is a bonus.  So, on this land the farmer cannot grow a full acre of ginger.  Amazingly, he still can grow enough to generate almost $4000 per year, a huge gain, although he has a large family to support, more than a dozen.  That is a little less than $1 per day more per person, but a big jump up considering his total income is well below the poverty line.  You would think that he would opt to plant as much ginger as possible, forgoing the other crops to chase the elusive $20,000.  But, he does not.  Historical cultural norms get in the way.  While he is testing ginger, he is solidly resistant to expanding.   Sources of irrigation are poor as well.  He is reliant on the rainy season, one, which noted is suspect this year.  Cultural barriers exist.

Corn is a subsistence crop.  It is a food source. The fruit and coffee trees were planted by his ancestors.  They are also a food source.  Ginger, a cash crop, is an unknown in the region.  These factors coupled with the issues of available manure and water are obstacles which inhibit the wholesale conversion to ginger only.  If the farmer had two acres maybe he would consider the alternative, but he does not.

Opportunities abound for the poor and thankfully this social enterprise is pushing to convince these people that there is a different way.  The goal is to engage some of the less culturally resistant, Uganda Farm now has three hundred farmers in the fold.  Peer pressure might convert the obstinate.   When neighbors see neighbors flourish, conversion is easier.  At a one-time cost of $52 per farm to provide the initial inputs and build the capacity to nurture the crop there is a pathway out of poverty for these poor farmers.  It may take time, but it is possible to create a sustainable livelihood from ginger.  Simple math is compelling, but other factors mitigate conversion. This is not unusual in Uganda. Time will tell.