ONE
Volunteering with ONE: my part of the revolution
Today ONE member Isabelle Mertens blogs about what it’s like to hit the streets and campaign with us.
Isabelle signing up the lovely people of Leuven to our Global Food Revolution campaign
Over the last year, I have volunteered with ONE enough to know that no two days are ever the same. So when the ONE Brussels team asked me to campaign for a Global Food Revolution with them at a fair trade picnic in Leuven, I grabbed my ONE t-shirt and hopped on the train.
On the way there we were briefed on the nutrition crisis and the opportunity – the statistics are scary. This year alone, 2 million children will die from undernutrition. However, with the G8 Summit less than a month away, we have an opportunity to call on world leaders to help 25 million children reach their full potential by making bold commitments to reduce chronic malnutrition by 2016.
When we arrive, we take our position among Oxfam, Plan, and other organisations at the picnic. Armed with an iPad, our mission is to get as many people as possible to sign our Food Revolution petition. Adventure started!
I was amazed to see how much the students at Leuven already knew about malnutrition and how excited they were to get involved, to learn more about what we do, what we fight for. I really enjoyed talking to other young people so passionate about the issues.
This journey volunteering with ONE has been a very human experience. It’s given me more faith in humankind. Young people, parents, students, and seniors all seem to be willing to fight for what is right. For what should be normal, banal even: access to healthy food.
That’s what the Food Revolution campaign is about and why I’m happy to be a part of it. Someone has to stand up for those who can’t.
So, let’s share information. We have more than enough ways now to spread it around the world. You can join the fight by signing the petition and sharing it with your friends. Get the conversation started on Facebook. Together, let’s talk as ONE.
Interested in campaigning at events like Isabelle? If you live in Belgium, France, Germany, the UK, US or South Africa, contact us for more information.
The festival in the desert where only the bravest will come
ONE Arts and Music Blogger Hannah Elansary interviews the people behind the Last Song Before the War, a documentary of the Festival au Desert in Mali.
The Last Song Before the War Teaser from The Last Song Before the War on Vimeo.
As Northern Mali continues to face instability, music serves as a powerful driver of cultural unification. The riveting feature-length documentary, The Last Song Before the War, captures the importance of music through Mali’s annual Festival in the Desert.
Before conflict took grip on the region, Malians and more than 600 people from outside Africa traveled to the deserts of Timbuktu, coming together for a music festival filled with a celebration of culture. While this gathering has been happening in Northern Mali among the nomadic Tuareg culture for centuries, the Festival in the Desert became the largest driver of tourism, boosting the economy and helping to reduce poverty in the country.
The producers of the film, Andrea Papitto, Kiley Kraskouskas and Leola Calzolai-Stewart each have their own experiences of Mali but can all agree that the Festival in the Desert, with musicians from all over the world and tourists ignoring travel warnings, is truly a remarkable gathering.
Not knowing if the Festival would continue for much longer, the trio raised $23,000 through a Kickstarter campaign, built relationships with African musicians, and with the help of their advisor Abou Ansar, got ready to film the January 2010 festival in only six months.
I got to speak with Andrea (producer), Leola (editor) and Kiley (director) about their own life-changing journey to Timbuktu and how keeping the festival and music alive could be crucial for Mali’s future.
Hannah: You took a lot of personal and financial risks to shoot this documentary – why do it? What personal connection do you have to the festival?
Kiley Kraskouskas: I know for me I was really struck by the role the festival played in peacemaking and bringing people together. I think we all wanted to tell a positive story about Africa, something that is not in mainstream media-this is just such an amazing example of that and for me never having been to Mali or Africa-I was really moved by my experience there: the people, the beauty the landscapes, and what a hospitable place it was.
Leola Calzolai-Stewart: And I think having lived there for a couple years -it’s one of those countries that most people don’t think about visiting even though it is so culturally and historically rich. I saw this as an opportunity to show Mali to a broader audience.
Andrea Papitto : And I’ve worked in a handful of African countries and there is something special about Mali that when you go there you feel such a connection to the people – I feel like I have family there now after how warm and generous my friends there have been and it’s just incredible.
Hannah: I know one of the tag lines of the documentary is ‘only the bravest people will come’ to this festival. So, what would you say were the attitudes of people who have travelled from all over Africa and the world?
Andrea: People are just so excited to be there and what’s really special about the festival is that you are immersed in the local traditional festival, something that has gone on for hundreds of years. I think there is a different sense of excitement and openness of the people that go- they are really interested in observing the culture first-hand rather than going on a giant tour bus and taking pictures out of the window.
Leola: And I think brave is an interesting word because people are brave, but it’s a bravery that comes from complete open mindedness – having utter faith in people and seeing past the travel warnings.
Hannah: Can you tell us about the Tuareg culture and how it shapes the festival?
Andrea: It’s a celebration of culture. The Tuareg have been gathering like this for a long time, so it was really natural for them to open up a traditional gathering for tourism. I think the Tuareg culture is very inviting and very respectful of the environment and encouraging of having something in such an open space. Originally, they wanted it to be a nomadic festival, having it in different towns in Northern Mali, but logistically it made more sense to keep it in one place – it is meant to benefit everyone in different communities so it is really unifying in the Tuareg community in the North and over the years they invited other groups and musicians from all over Mali, West Africa, and the world.
Hannah: The film showcases the festival before the imposition of Sharia Law and the fleeing of 500,000 people, including the festival staff. Can you tell us a little about how the people of Mali have fought through this to keep the festival in the desert and music in general alive?
Andrea: In November 2011 there was a kidnapping in Timbuktu of a tourist just very close to the festival site and very close to when the 2012 festival was going to take place. [As a result], it wasn’t as well-attended by tourists, but the locals still came out… and then when the conflict started in Mali leading up to 2013, they had a Caravan of Artists for Peace and National Unity. So many people were displaced so they wanted to do a tour in Uritania and parts of Mali, piggy backing off of other festivals in different towns. They traveled through Burkina Faso to include the refugee population that had been displaced… as the festival date got closer, they had to postpone it for 2013. But, they also started a Festival in Exile tour which kicked off at the Gold Summit about a month ago.
Hannah: What do you want your audience to feel and learn when they watch the documentary?
Leola: I think a little bit of nostalgia. I mean we did want to show them what the festival was about but also a sense of what could be again-a sense of hope and understanding and what role the festival could play in rebuilding Mali
Kylie: I think we also wanted them to just feel the joy, feel the journey, and feel the wonderment of Mali. We didn’t want to make a super political film -we are just trying to show something really beautiful
Leola: Manny Ansar [the Festival’s founding director] has a line at the end of the film that says people always ask what’s so special about the festival and he says for nomads this is normal, you tell me what’s special about the festival. We want people to see the film and feel like they can answer that question for themselves.
Hannah: If you can, describe the festival in one word
Kiley: Life-changing
Andrea: Transformative, peaceful…
Leola: The pride in the young Tuaregs is as strong as in the old…
More to the poverty discussion than China
This post was originally published on CNN World.
Global Public Square recently published a thoughtful piece on how global poverty rates are falling fast. It argued that one country in particular is almost solely responsible for this dramatic trend: China. Meanwhile, it said progress in the rest of the world “has been much, much slower – if there’s been progress at all.”
Here’s the problem. There are 62 other countries across the globe that are also slashing extreme poverty rates at a remarkable pace. And many of them are located in Sub-Saharan Africa. So, the more important question is – how do we accelerate the progress being made in places like Ethiopia and Uganda while simultaneously jumpstarting it in places that are lagging behind, like Nigeria and the Congo?
It’s true that China’s case is remarkable – both in terms of its sheer scale and speed. It has lifted 680 million people out of poverty in a single generation. That’s amazing. It’s every poverty fighter’s dream. But the global story isn’t just about China. It is also about countries like Ethiopia, Uganda, Cameroon, Ghana, and Senegal that are also witnessing dramatic declines in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1.25 a day.
According to a forthcoming ONE Campaign report, 63 nations are on track to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015 (compared to 1990 levels) – including 16 in Sub-Saharan Africa. And their progress has further sped up over the last decade – particularly as African countries have turned the corner on HIV/AIDS, cleared unsustainable debt loads and made strategic investments in their social and physical infrastructure. The difficult and traumatic decade of the 1990s is receding in the rear-view mirror.
Bono mentioned 10 of these African trailblazers during his recent TED talk. Let’s look at two of them:
– In absolute terms, Ethiopia lifted an estimated 10 million people out of extreme poverty in just over a decade (from 2000 to 2011). During that time, the Ethiopian government focused nearly half of its total budget on poverty fighting sectors like health, agriculture, and education. And donors like the U.S. and Europe provided significant support alongside it. If the current trend holds, extreme poverty can be virtually eliminated by 2030.
– Uganda lifted nearly 3 million people out of poverty in four short years (between 2006 and 2009). Overall, the percentage of Ugandans living on less than $1.25 a day has fallen by nearly half since the early 1990s. It, too, could virtually eliminate it by 2030.
These dramatic results have inspired many world leaders – like President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, and Malawian President Joyce Banda – to declare that the world can virtually eliminate extreme poverty by 2030. Not to mention the World Bank president and a certain Irish rock star to boot.
To get there, several things will have to happen. There is risk in this story, just as there is promise. First, developing economies will not only need to keep growing at a healthy clip, but that growth will need to reach and benefit their poorest citizens. On that, I couldn’t agree more with the Global Public Square article. Conversely, a global growth shock that deals a direct blow to poor nations would be catastrophic in the fight against extreme poverty. Second, governments need to implement targeted policies that address growing rates of inequality. Fortunately, countries like Brazil have shown that this is possible. It’s not easy, but it’s possible.
Third, and perhaps most challenging, is the tough nut of states that have been governed poorly must be cracked. In Africa, this means places like Nigeria, Sudan, and the Congo. These are the populous nations that are holding down regional progress. They largely explain why Africa’s overall growth rates aren’t even more compelling than they are. One country like Nigeria can overshadow five like Uganda or two like Ethiopia simply because of its size.
Truth be told, nobody has a magic elixir that will transform these places into the next China or Ethiopia. Long running domestic instability, or even conflict, takes time to address. Then again, people said the same thing about China in the 1970s and Ethiopia in the 1980s. Or even Uganda in the 1990s. They were hopeless cases then. But look at them today.
So, going forward, let’s expand the global poverty discussion beyond a singular focus on China. While this tendency may be natural given China’s absolute numbers, it does an injustice to smaller nations that are surging alongside it. These success stories demonstrate that the elimination of extreme poverty is possible well within our lifetime, perhaps only a decade and a half away.
Look out for our 2013 DATA Report, released on 29 May, which looks at how donor and African government spending is linked to progress.
Why ONE Africa and 36 other organisations have sent an urgent letter to David Cameron
In a few weeks, the UK government will host a major international event in London called Nutrition for Growth: Beating Hunger through Business and Science. Happening just days before the 2013 G8 Summit in Lough Erne, it will bring together governments, businesses, scientists and civil society to examine strategies that could improve the quality and quantity of food available to the world’s poorest people.
Back in March I attended a highly energised meeting of African civil society organisations in Ethiopia, who had gathered for Africa’s biggest annual forum on agriculture and where we launched our report A Growing Opportunity. We all agreed an urgent message needed to be sent to the international community before the June summit in the UK.
As a result, ONE together with 36 other African organisations have written to UK Prime Minister Cameron asking his government to ensure that African-led agriculture is at the heart of the Nutrition for Growth event, and specifically the existing CAADP plans.
CAADP stands for the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program. It has already created momentum to reform agriculture in 40 out of 53 African countries and many more are joining. This makes it the single best existing framework that would support the G8 to deliver excellent results from their food security and nutrition investments on the continent.
CAADP will also become the central organising vehicle for the African Union year of Agriculture in 2014. African states have committed themselves become more accountable to their people on accelerated progress in fighting hunger and helping small-holder farmers access better investment, technology and markets to sell their produce.
African leadership, political will and investment is critical to realising the poverty reducing potential of African agriculture. The private sector and international community also has a very important supporting role to play in investing in African-led agriculture.
Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, African Union Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, has said, “Africa has potential, but it cannot eat potential. More coordinated action is needed”.
Rather than re-invent the wheel, the G8 must build on the momentum growing across Africa and fund the agriculture plans already in place.
Read our letter to UK Prime Minister David Cameron and share our graphic on Facebook.
How Grow Africa could be a game changer for African farming and business
ONE US Policy Manager David Hong and ONE Africa Deputy Director Nachilala Nkombo look at the progress made by Grow Africa in the last year.
Today, five African heads of state, four G8 development ministers, and over 100 private sector companies will meet in Cape Town, South Africa at the World Economic Forum on Africa to assess Grow Africa’s work in 2012, the partnership’s first full year in business.
First, here’s a little background. Two years ago, the African Union Commission, New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) agency, and the World Economic Forum combined forces to create a new partnership, Grow Africa, which aims to reduce poverty by accelerating private sector investment in African agriculture.
The partnership is led by the organisations above, and includes eight member countries and various stakeholders such as host governments, companies involved in investment, civil society, research institutions, and farmer organisations.
Here at ONE, we’re taking this opportunity to weigh in on Grow Africa’s first annual report. Overall, the initiative made significant progress last year, especially given the small size of its team. ONE hopes for further and more robust reporting in the coming years so the partnership can demonstrate its value and defend its model. Annual reporting gives Grow Africa an opportunity to demonstrate lessons learned over the past year and what challenges lay ahead.
Here are the headlines:
- 97 commitments from 62 companies, of which 39 based are in Africa
- More than $60 million invested in activities that incorporate smallholder farmers
- 270,000 metric tons of commodities sourced within partner countries
- Equivalent of around $300 million in sales from these farmers
- Almost 800,000 smallholders reached with a mix of training, sourcing, and service provision
Obviously, there is a lot to commend here. Thousands of smallholders are being incorporated into commercial food supply chains where they’re growing more food and generating more income for their families. If Grow Africa adds further measures to increase transparency and expand reporting of poverty reduction indicators, the partnership could change the game for farmers and businesses.
For more information on Grow Africa’s report and ONE’s analysis, check out this policy brief.
135,000 ONE members call for the voices of the world’s poorest to be heard
ONE members Billy, Mark and Francesca delivering our Open for Development campaign to the home of UK Prime Minister David Cameron. Photo: ONE
This morning we delivered over 135,000 petition signatures for our Open for Development campaign to 10 Downing Street, home of the UK Prime Minister.
Thousands of ONE members are calling for the next set of poverty-busting goals to reflect the views and priorities of people living in poverty, and to be specific, measurable and accountable.
A High Level Panel, co-chaired by UK Prime Minister David Cameron are in charge of coming up with the new Millennium Development Goals, and we’ve been tracking them down around the world to get our campaign delivered.
Here is the message we delivered today:
As you work with the other High Level Panel Co‑chairs and Panelists to finalise your report and recommendations, and before you travel to New York next week for your final Panel meeting, I am writing on behalf of the 135,000 ONE members who have signed the enclosed ‘Open for Development’ petition. The petition calls on you, President Johnson-Sirleaf and President Yudhoyono to ensure that your recommendations reflect the views of the world’s most vulnerable people in the post-2015 framework, and to ensure that any new goals are specific, measurable and accountable.
Echoing your own development priorities for the UK’s G8 Presidency this year, transparency and accountability must be put at the heart of the post‑2015 framework. As well as robust citizen consultations in the design of the framework, we are calling for:
- transparency and accountability in monitoring investments and outcomes;
- improved statistical systems that are open and user-friendly (ie open data); and
- increased financing through both domestic and international resource mobilisation.At the Monrovia meeting in January, ONE and Save the Children co-hosted an exhibition and panel discussion on transparency, accountability and the post-2015 agenda. The event was attended by members of the Panel, including President Johnson-Sirleaf, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Gunilla Carlsson, Betty Maina and John Podesta, along with Amina Mohammed, members of the Secretariat, and almost 200 Liberians. In the interactive breakout sessions, they drew up a series of recommendations for the Panel to consider, including a more inclusive consultation process and the collection of better data.
At the Bali meeting, we delivered our petition to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. At that stage, there were 120,000 signatories. In addition, we also presented our preliminary findings from our ‘You Choose’ survey, which asked Malawians, South Africans and Zambians what they wanted from the new framework. The ‘You Choose’ initiative fed into the UN’s ‘My World’ programme which is collating survey results from around the world. More than 140,000 people have taken part in ‘You Choose’: among the top concerns of respondents were “an honest and responsive government” and “better job opportunities”.
As you work to finalise the Panel’s conclusions, please consider the views of our members and the millions of people living in extreme poverty. Setting goals that are specific, measurable and accountable will help to define a path to end extreme poverty by 2030.
ONE Africa Director Dr Sipho Moyo (third from left) with every African member of the High Level Panel at their recent meeting in Bali. Photo: ONE
A huge thank you to everyone who has supported the campaign. We’ll keep you updated on the progress as we keep pushing hard to make sure the voices of the world’s most vulnerable people are heard.
Can Africa keep its promise to its people?
Erik Charas. Photo World Economic Forum / Matthew Jordaan matthew.jordaan@inl.co.za
Erik Charas is a campaigning journalist in Mozambique. He was recently arrested by local officials for asking government leaders difficult questions about shady deals done in Mozambique’s natural resources extraction sector.
Whether “Africa keeps its promise” to its people, the theme of this year’s World Economic Forum in Cape Town, depends in large part on how Mozambican and other African leaders respond to the probing questions asked by people like Erik.
The stakes could not be higher. Mozambique, like many other African nations across the continent, is discovering and developing vast natural resource reserves and untapping enormous amounts of resource wealth. Resource development offers a golden key to a much desired and heralded “economic transformation”. But the turning of this key depends on ensuring efficient and transparent management of resource revenues and the investment of these revenues into the continent’s physical and human infrastructure.
If Mozambique – like Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and others – gets this right, it could develop more rapidly and, above all, more inclusively, securing a prosperous future for all its citizens. These choices must be made now.
That is why ONE, along with its partners in the Publish What You Pay coalition, have been campaigning hard for transparency in the extractives sector in Europe and North America. We recently celebrated serious progress in this campaign as Europe agreed to mandatory reporting of payments by companies to governments in the extractives sector. It would be wonderful if African leaders now took this further and implemented legislation covering Johannesburg, Nairobi, Accra and other stock exchanges.
We are also supporting our partners in pushing for disclosure of “beneficial ownership” of dodgy shell companies – as lack of clarity around ownership facilitates hiding stolen assets and tax evasion – as well as technical assistance for African revenue authorities, and exchange of tax information conventions.
All these efforts can help authorities and citizens follow the money, and ensure funds hidden from revenue authorities in the murkier parts of the offshore system can be exposed, relocated and taxed accordingly. But it would be nonsense stopping at transparency only offshore.
Transparency of government budgets is equally important, from national to local level, so citizens can track resources and follow the money all the way to results where people live – kids immunised, educated, nourished, wells dug and working, electricity accessed even in remote rural areas, and small farmers properly supported and connected through farm-to-market roads.
With partners we are campaigning across these fronts so that African nations will have more domestic resources at their disposal, through increased revenue collection and economic growth, to invest in the continent’s infrastructure and meet all the promises African leaders have made to their citizens to end hunger, malnutrition, disease and extreme poverty, and to instead spread prosperity.
A new report from Kofi Annan’s Africa Progress Panel on African natural resource governance, being launched this week at the World Economic Forum, lays out much of what must be done to help secure the revenues needed for development on the continent.
Its policy recommendations make clear that African nations should be legislating for transparency in the natural resources sector, and how governments can make better use of those revenues – by channelling them into infrastructure, job creation, health, nutrition and education. If this happens, then the 2 billion African citizens of 2050, and all global citizens around the world, who will by then be relying on Africa for economic and political dynamism and leadership, will look back upon this time – the 50th anniversary of the African Union, and maybe even this very 2013 meeting in Cape Town – as pivotal turning points in the continent’s history.
This way lies the future that leaders such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu envisioned – that the twenty first century will be “the African century”. This way lies the realisation of the African Union’s own charter; of a resilient, vibrant Africa driven and determined by its own citizens.
This way also lies the realisation of Nelson Mandela’s dream – that this could be the generation to end extreme poverty and hunger. But the path towards such visionary progress wont be lit up if the Erik Charas’ of Africa are silenced and intimidated into not asking those probing, revealing, enlightening, questions.
Get the latest news and views from ONE at the World Economic Forum from tomorrow by following @ONECampaign on Twitter.
How to start the fight for global nutrition in Brussels? Free chilli!
ONE staff Tamira and Eloise hit the streets of Brussels with our nutrition campaign and free veggie chilli. Photo: ONE
For the launch of our global nutrition campaign in Brussels, a team of volunteers and ONE staff took the food fight to the streets. Having slaved over hot stoves the evening before, we hit the pavement with the best weapon a poverty-fighting foodie could ask for: vegetarian chilli.
ONE member Natasa hands out veggie chilli and signs up support for our global nutrition campaign. Photo: ONE
We set our eyes on Place du Luxembourg, directly across from the European Parliament.
Armed with 100 hot cups of chilli at lunchtime, we went in search of hungry people. The masses welcomed us with open arms and eagerly took action by signing our petition.
This year alone over 2 million people will die as a result of being obese and over 2 million children will die from undernutrition.
Regardless of where in the world we live, nutrition should always be at the top of the agenda.
It’s time to save millions of lives.
Are you part of the fight for global nutrition yet? Join us!
Meet Adrian, Munch Street Food trader and ONE member of the month
Today our guest blogger is ONE member Adrian Luckie, who along with Neil Adams, founded Munch Street Food. They are supporting our Global Good Revolution campaign by inviting us along to their exciting UK events to help spread the word.
I am passionate about street food and feel that by working with an organisation like ONE, Munch Street Food can create street food events that help convey the important messages regarding food waste and world hunger and raise more interest for these worthy causes.
As a trader who is part of the new street food revolution I feel it’s important to always encourage healthy eating and, most importantly not to waste food, which has such a devastating impact in the world.
Last week we organised a street food festival at the London Marathon, alongside ONE and Small Green Shoots. We wanted to create an environment where people could immerse themselves in a cultural experience based around diverse levels of cultural cuisine, highlighting food waste and food poverty and celebrate a platform for new talent sourced from inner city communities.
I am delighted that Munch Street Food and ONE have started to collaborate spreading the Actions Speak Louder message through our street food events. We will be asking some of the traders at our events to take part in the campaigns by adapting their menus to introducing sweet potato dishes, salads and healthier options.
Munch Street Food also works with organisations like Small Green Shoots educating the younger generation about these issues and offering them the platform to further develop their talents.
Our next free event is at the iconic More London Scoop on Saturday 25 May. We’ll have fantastic street food, great music entertainment and another opportunity to raise awareness of ONE’s campaigns. Come along if you are in the London area!
Have you joined our Global Food Revolution campaign yet? No? Get involved!
You can keep up with Munch Street Food on Facebook and Twitter.
How much is too much rain? Ask Kenyan farmer Anne a question
In partnership with One Acre Fund, we are following Anne, a smallholder farmer from Kenya, for a whole growing season. From planting to harvest, we will check in every month to see what life is really like for a farmer in rural Kenya. Catch up with Part 1. Written by Hailey Tucker.
Anne at home in Kisiwa, Kenya. Photo: Hailey Tucker
In Western Kenya, successful planting for the year is typically seen as a matter of materials, skill and knowledge. However, most farmers acknowledge that ultimately—regardless of expertise—plant germination can be won or lost by the rains.
For farmers who plant too early, there will not be enough consistent rain to help their crops grow. For farmers who wait long enough but get unlucky, their newly sown seeds will be washed away by heavy rains before the seedlings have a chance to take root.
Trying to pinpoint the prefect timing makes planting one of the most risk-laden choices a farmer can make.
Anne (left) and Rasoa Wasike, both members of the Kabuchai Women’s Group, planting millet. Photo: Hailey Tucker
It had been a few nights in a row when Anne had been too hot to sleep and too hot to even cover herself with any sort of blanket, when she knew it was time. Anne would lay awake on a sweat-moistened mattress and hear a strong wind rustling the trees outside.
“When the temperature stays high at night and the winds are blowing hard from West to East, I believe the rains are very near,” Anne says. “Then in the day, I observe the clouds. If there are dark clouds and they hang closer to the earth than the white clouds, then I know the rains are coming.”
After seeing the signs Anne has come to associate with pending rain, she decided to plant part of her millet for the season on March 22, and then finished the rest of the plot on March 25 after taking a few days off for her mother-in-law’s funeral.
The morning of planting, Anne and her husband Isaac gathered with their relatives to pray over their seeds and fertiliser. “I am a believer,” Anne says. “I am spiritual so before planting my family will pray.” Isaac, who is a pastor at the local church, leads the prayer.
After planting, Anne commented, “Preparing the finger millet land required a lot of commitment and labour because we had to break down the soil very fine and remove all the debris. All of the preparation was worthwhile though because then the planting became easy—even easier than maize.”
On March 23, the rains were heavy and with Anne’s field being situated on a slight slope, her first round of seeds took more water than was ideal. Looking at the field two weeks later, the furrows that once divided her lines of seed are barely visible, but patches of millet are still beginning to appear.
“The rains are a little different this year because they usually come in April,” Anne says. “They came in March this year instead and are also much heavier.”
The first green shoots of millet germinating. Photo: Hailey Tucker
The second half of her field received light rain most of the days immediately following planting, which is the best Anne could have asked for.
“I believe that these are good,” Anne says pointing to the second set of seedlings. “They are much better, I think they will germinate well.”
Have you got a question or message for Anne? Leave a comment and we’ll get them directly to her in Kenya, and try and answer them in the next instalment.
One Acre Fund serves 125,000 smallholder farmers in Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi, helping them to increase their harvests and incomes. It provides farmers with a service bundle that includes seed and fertiliser, credit, training, and market facilitation, and enables farmers to double their income per planted acre. To learn more about their work, you can read Roger Thurow’s The Last Hunger Season.
- Previous Posts Older Entries
- Next Posts
 |
 |
 |
About the Blog
The International ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with guest contributions from ONE volunteers, members and allies.
The content of each post and each comment represents the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ONE. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any post expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
TAGS: ONE