Nuru International is a U.S.-based

social venture A Social Venture (also called a social enterprise) is undertaking by a firm or organization established by a social entrepreneur that seeks to provide systemic solutions to achieve a sustainable, social objective. Background Social ventures may b ...

with the goal of helping the poor living in remote rural areas of

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

and

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

to end

extreme poverty Extreme poverty, deep poverty, abject poverty, absolute poverty, destitution, or penury, is the most severe type of poverty, defined by the United Nations (UN) as "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, includi ...

in their communities. Nuru is a Kiswahili word that means "light."

History

Nuru International was founded by, CEO, Jake Harriman, who attended the

U.S. Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a United States Service academies, federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of ...

and served over 7 years in the

U.S. Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through comb ...

as a

Platoon Commander {{unreferenced, date=February 2013 A platoon leader (NATO) or platoon commander (more common in Commonwealth militaries and the US Marine Corps) is the officer in charge of a platoon. This person is usually a junior officer – a second or firs ...

, including in four operational deployments, two of which were combat tours in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

during the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

. Harriman's experiences in combat compelled him to believe that

was a contributing factor to global

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

. Harriman left his career in the Marine Corps and enrolled at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business to start an organization that would fight terrorism by ending extreme poverty. Nuru International began operations in 2008.

Development model

Nuru International trains and equips local leaders in effective

poverty reduction Poverty reduction, poverty relief, or poverty alleviation, is a set of measures, both economic and humanitarian, that are intended to permanently lift people out of poverty. Measures, like those promoted by Henry George in his economics clas ...

methods developed by other humanitarian organizations around the world. Because of this approach, Nuru has been called a "general contractor of the NGO sector." Nuru is piloting a community development model that aims to be integrated, self-sustaining, and self-scaling and to address four areas of need: hunger, inability to cope with economic shocks, preventable disease and death, and lack of access to quality education for children. By partnering with organizations such as

One Acre Fund One Acre Fund is a social enterprise that supplies smallholder farmers in East Africa with asset-based financing and agriculture training services to reduce hunger and poverty. Headquartered in Kakamega, Kenya, the organization works with farmer ...

, Nuru seeks to create an efficient,

scalable Scalability is the property of a system to handle a growing amount of work by adding resources to the system. In an economic context, a scalable business model implies that a company can increase sales given increased resources. For example, a ...

model.

Servant Leadership

Nuru identifies and mentors local leaders in the principles of

servant leadership Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy in which the goal of the leader is to serve. This is different from traditional leadership where the leader's main focus is the thriving of their company or organization. A servant leader shares powe ...

, and mobilizes the community into groups led by these local leaders, supplying them with necessary expertise to lift their communities out of extreme poverty.

Sustainability and Scalability

Nuru integrates revenue generation models into all five of its program areas to achieve

sustainability Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...

and eventually scale to achieving national impact.

Pilot project

Nuru International's first project was in Kuria, Kenya. Located in the southwest of the country, Kuria is one of the poorest districts in Kenya. Since Nuru began partnering with the community in 2008, 5,525 farmers and their families have enrolled in Nuru's agriculture loan program and have experienced a 123% increase of their maize yields on average. Nuru's other program areas (

healthcare Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

, and

community economic development Community economic development (CED) is a field of study that actively elicits community involvement when working with government, and private sectors to build strong communities, industries, and markets. It includes collaborative and participatory ...

) operate in concert with the agriculture program to comprise a holistic approach to humanitarian development.Behind the Scene with Jake Harriman
Ideation Conference, 2010.

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.nuruinternational.org/
Nuru International's Statement on the Link Between Terrorism, Insurgency and Extreme Poverty
Charities based in California Development charities based in the United States Humanitarian aid organizations Foreign charities operating in Kenya Foreign charities operating in Ethiopia