Good-Bye to Little Rock!

As the saying goes: “all good things must come to an end,” and after 15 years Eliminate Poverty NOW! and Little Rock are ending their partnership. The program designed and implemented with EPN’s financial support has broken the cycle of poverty for almost 100 remarkable young women and men from Nairobi’s largest slum. Tutoring programs prepared Little Rock 8th graders to take Kenya’s national entrance exam to secondary school. Those who scored in the top 2% qualified to attend Kenya’s top high schools.  EPN scholarships gave them the opportunity to change their lives forever.  

The program’s results are impressive:

  • 96 students were awarded 4-year scholarships over the 15 years.

  • 90 of those students graduated secondary school -- a 94% graduation rate.

  • Of the 90 graduates, 79 qualified to continue their education in colleges, universities, and technical schools.  EPN provided the entrance fees for them to attend.

  • Of those 79 students, 16 have now completed their studies while 63 are currently enrolled or have recently applied.

  • Their chosen fields of study include architecture, education, engineering, finance, medicine, nursing, physics, psychology, statistics, telecommunications, and more.

So often, aid programs in poverty-stricken areas fall short of their goals.   There are just too many places where things can go wrong.   At EPN we are extraordinarily proud of what we achieved with Little Rock.  Together we accomplished exactly what we set out to do -- enabling these talented young people to break the cycle of poverty and change their lives forever.

To all the supporters of Eliminate Poverty NOW!, sincere thanks for making it possible.

Following are a couple of testimonials from Little Rock Scholars who share their gratitude for being a part of the program:

New Board Members!

We’re pleased to announce that Tom and Patsy Lightbown are joining the Eliminate Poverty NOW board of directors.  They bring valuable skills and experience to EPN and share a very special connection to Niger.

Tom’s management consulting career spanned 40 years, specializing in strategy and organization at KPMG, ISO Healthcare Consulting, and Sanofi Pasteur.  A graduate of Hamilton College, Yale University, and Columbia University, Tom is a Fellow of the Institute of Certified Management Consultants of Canada. 

Patsy is a Distinguished Professor Emerita of Concordia University, Montreal. Her book, How Languages Are Learned, is considered foundational in language teacher education programs around the world.

Tom and Patsy have lived and worked in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.  They began their married lives together as Peace Corps volunteers to Niger, are equally comfortable in French and English, and have significant experience introducing innovative teaching methods to teachers in French-speaking West Africa. 

We are delighted to welcome Tom and Patsy to the EPN Board.

 

Patsy Lightbown

Tom Lightbown

Dov Institute Planning Meeting in Accra, Ghana

Just back from my latest trip to Africa.  The focus was on plans to launch agricultural training at the Dov Institute this October.  We made exciting progress and I want to share the highlights with you.

First, a quick refresher.  The mission of the Dov Institute is to build agricultural prosperity in Niger by teaching a business approach to farming.  In the process, we will help transform agricultural practice and increase farmer income.

Everything about the Dov Institute will be outstanding -- from the quality of our facilities to the quality of our curriculum, teaching staff, and students.   Our campus already gets “wows” from visitors.  The focus this past week was to ensure our curriculum and teaching staff lives up to the same high standard.

The Planning Team from left to right: Hamani Djibo, Robin Mednick, John Craig, Zakari Hassane, Almoustapha Mody, Patsy and Tom Lightbown, Issaka Housseini, and Harouna Souley (in front)

We want our students to have a first-class learning experience – providing them with knowledge and skills for success in their careers and in life.  The Dov Institute will be unique in what and how we teach. 

First, the “what.” Our program will be the first in the country to focus on horticulture and the strategies to maximize farmer income.  We will also be unique for our focus on practical skills:  how to think creatively, analyze, and problem solve;  how to work effectively in teams;  and how to teach others what they’ve learned.

With regard to “how,” we will feature experiential, learn-by-doing teaching methods.  In the first year, students will start each day in the training gardens, getting their hands dirty using irrigation to grow high value crops 12 months of the year.  They will make frequent “agricultural rounds” (think medical rounds for med students) to sharpen their observation, diagnostic, and communication skills.  Classroom time will feature student discussion and involve them in a wide range of learning exercises.  We’ll use case studies – borrowing from successful techniques to train students in business and law. Field trips will take students out to the real world and “expert panels” will bring the real world in to them.

This is radically different from the teaching methods currently employed in Niger.  Almost all higher education focuses on theory and technical knowledge.  Instruction is conducted primarily by lecture.  Student performance is measured by how well they understand what they’ve heard, memorize it, and play it back on exams. 

If our campus facilities elicit “wows,” students should have the same reaction to their learning experience.  To pull that off, our teachers need to master these new teaching methods.  We devoted half the time last week to training sessions for the faculty at the Dov Institute.  Each teacher prepared lessons in advance, conducted two simulated classes, and received in depth feedback.  The progress made from the first class to the second was impressive, and with 7 months of practice time available before the October launch, confidence was running high that we will have an outstanding teaching staff delivering an outstanding learning experience.

One more exciting piece of news.  We have added two valuable members to our Planning Team.  Tom and Patsy Lightbown were newlyweds and Peace Corps volunteers to Niger back in the 1960’s.  Tom went on to a successful career in business, Patsy as a professor of language at the university level.  They are as comfortable speaking in French as they are in English, have extensive experience teaching learn-by-doing methods to teachers in Africa, and have been working with our teachers for months.  Tom and Patsy led the teacher training sessions last week and will work with our teachers remotely right up to the October launch.

So … a week of excellent progress.  We are more excited than ever about the Dov Institute and its ability to make major contributions to agricultural development in Niger and to higher learning in the country.

John

EPN Has A New Address 

This October Eliminate Poverty NOW! (and John & Judy) are moving.  EPN’s new mailing address will be P.O. Box 364, Dover NH 03821.  From its earliest days EPN has operated as a virtual organization.  The move will have no impact on our operations, though winters will get a bit longer.

Wishing everyone a beautiful fall season.

John & Judy

Military Coup in Niger

As many of you are aware, on July 26th there was a military takeover of the government in Niger.  This has happened all too often in Niger (4 times since its independence in 1960) and too often in the African Sahel (6 countries in the last 3 years).  Niger was considered the most stable country in the region and served as a base for the fight against Islamist militants by many countries, including the US.  The stated reasons for the coup are to improve the country’s security and economy, but there is wide speculation about other possible motives. 

Hamani Djibo, President of LIBO, the NGO implementing our EPN projects, reports that everyone in his organization is safe and that routine life is little changed for now.  It is likely to take weeks or months before we know what impacts, if any, this will have on our programs and plans.

Speaking of changes to our plans, the week before the coup we held an internal meeting to review our readiness to launch technician training at the Dov Institute this October.  We concluded that there was simply too much work to do and too little time to get it all done.  We considered delaying just a few months to January, but that timing is not ideal from an academic or agricultural perspective.  So, we all agreed that October 2024 should be our new launch date. 

It's not clear what impact last week’s coup will have on all of this.  If improving economic conditions is truly one of the goals, then the Dov Institute is well positioned.  Our plan is to continue preparations for an October 2024 launch, monitor conditions closely, and make whatever adjustments may be required as the future becomes clearer.

Most importantly, we remain committed to do all we can to Eliminate Poverty NOW!

Phasing out Little Rock Scholarship Program

I'm writing to share important news about the Little Rock Scholarship program. The program enables the brightest students from Kibera to attend Kenya’s top secondary schools and provides the opportunity to continue their studies at the university level. Well over 90% of students have successfully graduated high school and the vast majority have qualified to attend colleges and universities. Their lives are forever changed, and the positive ripple effects will impact lives for generations to come.

Faith Amondi

Little Rock Scholarship HS graduate

Despite that success, the EPN Board has decided to phase out the program.  It’s a decision we did not come to lightly.  EPN has always focused on creating the greatest impact for the most people.  As wonderful as the Little Rock Scholarship Program has been, the agricultural training center we are building in Niger has the potential to impact 100-times more lives!  With the powerful leverage from “training-the-trainers,” we can help hundreds of thousands of Niger’s rural poor. 

Dov Center Main Gate Entrance

We stopped awarding new Little Rock Scholarships in 2020 but continue to support all students currently on scholarship to the end of their high school years.  Our last cohort will complete their studies in 2023 at which point the program will officially close. 

The Little Rock Scholarship Program has been a wonderful success.  And with the creation of The Dov Center we look forward to eliminating poverty for even larger numbers of Africa’s extreme poor in the future.

Dov Center Update

Eliminate Poverty NOW is creating Niger’s first technical center devoted to horticulture and maximizing farmer income. Honoring the late Professor Dov Pasternak, the Center will be outstanding in the quality of its facilities, staff, and educational programs. It will feature a technician training program to spread the principles of agricultural transformation to hundreds of villages throughout Niger, drawing on Dov’s 50 years of global experience with dryland agriculture and a decade of experience implementing his Farmers of the Future model. The program will be innovative in content and method of instruction, placing heavy emphasis on practical, hands-on learning.

After breaking ground in 2021, construction of the academic hall, cafeteria, and dormitory is now complete. Current activities include furnishing the facilities, landscaping the campus, filling key staffing positions, and creating the 2-year comprehensive training curriculum. Our goal is to open in Q4 2022.

You can find more details about the Center at www.DovCenter.org.