EPN Scholar Graduates

Elizabeth Teresa lives in Kibera, the largest slum in Kenya. Living conditions there are horrendous — severe overcrowding, no running water, raw sewage in open trenches. There is a pervasive sense of hopelessness. But not for graduates of the Little Rock Early Childhood Development Centre.

For them, higher education is the surest route to a better life. Students in 8th grade work with tutors paid by EPN to prepare for Kenya's entrance exam to secondary school. Those who score at the highest levels qualify to attend government-subsidized boarding schools. Tuition, room and board is a modest $1,000 per year. But these families lack the money to pay.

The Little Rock Scholarship program provides 4-year scholarships to the country's top boarding schools. These amazing young women and men overcome extraordinary obstacles to achieve at the highest level. And for those who qualify to continue on to university, EPN pays their entrance fees as well. Many Little Rock Scholars are now studying for degrees in business, law, engineering, architecture, pharmacy and more.

Farmers of the Future News

The Farmers of the Future program is our learning laboratory for Professor Dov Pasternak’s vision to transform agricultural practice in the African Sahel. Dov was a world leader in dryland agriculture who literally wrote the book on Agricultural Prosperity in Dry Africa. In the Farmers of the Future model, women are organized into local village cooperatives, provided with water and power for irrigation, and taught to approach farming as a business. Our field technicians work with the women intensively for a minimum of 3 years to help them master new farming techniques.

The results are life-changing — generating up to twice the average income of Niger. That money provides access to education and medical care. It improves the family diet, living conditions, and overall quality of life. And as women become a major source of household income it raises their self-image and self-respect. It fundamentally changes how they are viewed within the household and the community.

Farmers of the Future has been patiently tested in Niger since 2012. Now, with the creation of the Dov Center we will have the technical capacity to expand the FOF philosophy to hundreds of villages throughout the country.

You can help tackle poverty, hunger, and malnutrition in rural Africa through your support of Eliminate Poverty NOW.

DHL to the Rescue!

Professor Dov Pasternak, the visionary behind the Farmers of the Future concept, wrote the “go to” book for farming in arid sub-Saharan climates. We thought it would be wonderful to give copies of this all-important reference to students attending The Dov Center and a great way to expand awareness for Dov’s message of “income security” as the ultimate goal for agricultural development.

It’s a great idea but expensive – printing and shipping costs are high for 1,000 books.  Robin Mednick, president of Pencils for Kids, suggested she approach Ken Allen, a friend she made at DHL 15 years ago when he was head of their Canadian business.  Today Ken is the head of DHL’s global ecommerce business.  So fearless Robin writes to Ken, describes what we want, and sure enough, Ken steps right up with a generous donation and ensures all arrangements are made. The books just arrived in Niger – duty free – ready for distribution when school opens. We are profoundly grateful to our friends at DHL who supported this effort and made it possible for students of The Dov Center to continue Dov’s legacy of lifting subsistence farmers out of poverty.

Our Nigerien NGO partners are happy to receive the books!

Our Nigerien NGO partners are happy to receive the books!

Latest Update on Dov Center

This year Eliminate Poverty NOW! focused its annual fundraiser on The Dov Center - the pre-eminent Horticultural Education location in Niamey, Niger.  We described it as “The Big One” – the biggest project we’ve ever undertaken with by far the biggest impact.  It will improve lives in Niger by the tens of thousands.

Since last month’s mailing went out, we have two pieces of good news to share.  First, the response to our appeal to “go above and beyond” has been encouraging.  To date we’ve received contributions from 37 donors and almost all are at or above historical levels.  Thank you!  And for those still waiting to donate, please take advantage of the 100% match opportunity and make your contribution before year-end. 

Second, with the help of interim financing, construction contracts have been awarded and construction at The Dov Center is underway!  The groundbreaking ceremony was held on November 24th.  Crowd size was kept down given COVID concerns, but the ceremony was attended by members of the national government and many local officials. 

Niger’s Minister of Higher Education lays the cornerstone for the Dov Center

Niger’s Minister of Higher Education delivered the keynote address and spoke enthusiastically about the Center and its goals.  He also participated in laying a cornerstone of the main building.  Two local tv stations provided coverage and greatly increased awareness of the event.

As progress is made we will send updates.  In the meantime, we wish you all Happy Holidays and our hopes for a kinder, saner and happier 2021.

 

Is EPN able to continue with its mission?

During these challenging times of COVID, many have asked us if Eliminate Poverty NOW! is able to continue its mission of “Empowering Africa’s extreme poor to lift themselves out of poverty” – and the answer is a resounding YES! Poverty cannot take a hiatus due to COVID or for any other reason. The people we serve are constantly hurdling obstacles and all the more in these trying times.

While wildfires have raged in the western US, Niger has been pummeled by torrential rains resulting in flooding conditions they have not seen in nearly 100 years. Areas bordering the Niger River are the hardest hit. Fortunately, most of our sites have been spared, including the area where the new DOV Center campus is being constructed. However, the DOV Center Training Gardens along with the neighboring Ecole Centre gardens, both located closer to the river, have been flooded. We will not know the extent of the damage until the waters fully recede.

Rice fields and farms that border the Niger River are still under water and there is a real concern that food shortages will occur in the coming months. Many residents with mud homes damaged or destroyed by the floods have been forced to live in tents and some are sheltering in school buildings. All this is happening during a pandemic in a country with little or no real infrastructure in place.

Disaster relief is not part of our mission, but EPN and Pencils4Kids (our Canadian NGO partner) have each pledged $5,000 to purchase whatever assistance is most needed in the communities where we work. At some point we may want to increase that support based on final assessments of the damage.

Yet, despite these challenges, we continue to move forward with plans to create the preeminent training center for horticulture in Niger.  Architectural plans for The Dov Center have been finalized and we are identifying construction companies to bid on the project. We are conducting a national job search for the school’s Director General.  The application for accreditation with Niger’s Ministry of Higher Education must include partnership agreements with other organizations in the field and we are assembling an outstanding group of partners!  ICRISAT has already signed on and we are finalizing agreements with the Songhai Center and Volcani, the agricultural science arm of Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture.  COVID-permitting, we are on track to open our doors in Q4 2021.

Turning to Kenya and Little Rock - COVID numbers continue to run high. The Kenyan government shuttered public schools in March and has announced tentative plans to reopen them in January 2021. Remote learning in Kenya is not a realistic option, given the lack of computers and internet connections.  Lily Oyare, Little Rock’s founder and principal, says that they have been printing and distributing lessons to the primary school age children, but the preschool is closed. And our Little Rock Scholars do their best to stay engaged academically from home.

To sum up, we are doing the best we can under challenging circumstances, making as much progress as conditions allow, and planning for a major milestone in 2021 with the opening of The Dov Center.

 

 

The "Dov Center"

We’re thrilled that rural economic development has become a top priority in Niger.  We’re even more thrilled to see major funders like the World Bank and Millennium Challenge Corporation pledge hundreds of millions of dollars to increase farmer profitability.  It hasn’t always been this way.

For years, “food security” has been the main focus in agricultural development, enabling farmers to grow enough food to feed themselves and their families.  We’ve always felt this was important.  Nobody wants people to starve.  But it can still leave millions impoverished and malnourished.  Food security is not enough.  The bar must be raised, enabling farmers to achieve “economic security” and lift themselves out of chronic poverty.  That’s the goal of Farmers of the Future and we’re thrilled to see that philosophy become a national priority.

In a country as bone-dry as Niger, irrigation is key to unlocking the economic potential of the land.  Lots of money will be spent on infrastructure for wells, solar panels, water distribution systems and more to bring irrigation to rural areas.  But infrastructure isn’t enough.  Farmers must learn to grow and sell crops for maximum profit.  It’s very different from the way they’ve farmed for generations.  Mastering new concepts and techniques takes time and lots of intensive training and supervision by knowledgeable technicians.  There’s only one problem.  Those technicians are in desperately short supply.

So …. welcome to “The Dov Center.”  Named in honor of Dov Pasternak, father of Farmers of the Future, we are creating the pre-eminent horticultural training center in Niger.  The Dov Center will train the trainers, teaching them best practices in horticulture, strategies to turn vegetables and fruits into profitable businesses, and techniques to effectively teach what they learn to illiterate farmers.

We’re still raising money to build the main campus (classrooms, library, science lab, offices, and dormitory), but the training garden where theory is turned into practice is largely complete.  Judy and I toured the garden and it’s impressive.

Touring the “Dov Center” Garden

Touring the “Dov Center” Garden

We’ve installed 5 different irrigation systems so students can work with the irrigation methods they are most likely to encounter on the job.  The garden will produce all its own compost and demonstrate the impact of proper soil nutrition on crop yields.  There is a vegetable nursery to ready seedlings for transplanting, a seed multiplication area, a tree grafting facility, and a post-harvest storage area.  Students will grow crops year-round in Niger’s 3 distinct growing seasons and learn the techniques for growing counter-seasonally so crops reach the market as prices peak. 

One morning we invited mayors from three counties slated to receive millions of dollars for agricultural development to tour the garden.  And the overwhelming reaction was “formidable!” (That’s French for “wonderful”)  In fact, after the meeting they called their Millennium Challenge contact to ensure we were invited to submit proposals to develop gardens in their communities.  Of course, their enthusiasm doesn’t guarantee anything.  But it sure doesn’t hurt!

The Dov Center will greatly expand Niger’s technical capacity in horticulture and help achieve the rural economic development the country so desperately needs.  And that would make Dov extremely proud!

Here’s a Picture Worth More Than a Thousand Words

We all know the old saying.  As a piece of art this picture is worth no more than the plywood it’s drawn on.  But as a plan to maximize profit for this 4-acre Farmers of the Future vegetable garden, it’s worth over $100,000! And for 50 women from this rural village in Niger, that’s a lot of money!!!  Let me explain.

These days the largest and most impressive FOF gardens are located in the county of Balleyara, a 100-kilometer drive north of Niamey.  Five cooperatives were struggling when we received funding from USAID to take them over. Two and a half years later the gardens are lush and productive.  We arrived for our site visits just as the women were about to harvest tons of onions and potatoes.

Balleyara Farmers.jpg

Ballyera women farmers

Enjoying their success

What’s the secret behind that success?  We provide intensive training and supervision for a three-year period of time, hopefully long enough for women to master farming as a business.  But what happens when we wean them off support?  Will they sustain that success?  The question is particularly challenging since almost all our women are illiterate.  How can they record technical information, retain it and retrieve it as needed?  We believe a big part of the answer is pictorial.

The Giant Piece of Plywood

The $100,000 picture!

For example, cooperatives must be able make their own annual crop plan.  To maximize profits women need to select which crops to grow, when to plant them, when to harvest and when to sell as prices peak.  The drawing in the photo shows exactly that.  The women create symbols for each of the 12 months.  They draw pictures of the various crops and develop additional symbols to identify the activities of planting, growing, harvesting and selling.  The whole annual plan on one giant piece of plywood!

During our visit to Balleyara, we asked one woman at each site to talk us through the plan.  And they really knew their stuff.  They rattled off all the details of what, when, how and why.

Today sustainability is the central focus of our work in gardens under direct FOF control.  It’s an opportunity to develop a unique competence in this frequently overlooked but absolutely critical aspect of rural economic development.  And it will become a featured topic in the curriculum at our Horticultural Training Center now under construction.  More about the Center in the next post.