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.  Written by Hailey Tucker. For the 2013 season, One Acre Fund offered each of its Kenyan farmers more than 400 live sweet potato vines to plant and harvest. Anne with her new orange-flesh sweet potato plants. Photo credit: One...
By Arathi Rao, ONE’s Policy Manager, Agriculture and Nutrition Children at Mawango School in Malawi eating a mid-morning snack of porridge, supported by the World Food Programme. Photo: Morgana Wingward Last week world leaders pledged more than $4 billion to global nutrition programs and committed to save 20 million children from malnutrition at Nutrition for Growth, a pre-G8 event, in London. Now that these ambitious targets have been set, and tremendous resources have been mobilised to accomplish this goal, one question...
This week is Children’s Book Week which aims to instill a lifelong love of reading in children. Our US intern Brittany Walters has tracked down six great books that tackle serious issues like HIV and globalisation, which can help young people develop an understanding of the world around them through storytelling.  You can buy them all online too. Little Feet, Big Steps by Brit Sharon A coming of age story about Gabby, a young girl who signs up for an AIDS Walk in her city. She...
Our guest blogger today is the MTV Africa VJ, singer and activist from Tanzania, Vanessa Mdee.  Writing as an ambassador for the GAVI Alliance, her post celebrates the recent news that the HPV vaccine to protect women and girls from cervical cancer is set to drop in price for 50 of the world’s poorest countries.  I’m trying to think of the first time my mother had ‘The Talk’ (yes the birds and the bees talk) with me. The talk that...
This guest post is by journalist Abby Higgins, in partnership with The Seattle Globalist. It’s the fourth in a five-part series which reveals the economically complex and culturally rich life of urban slums, and challenges our perceptions of what life is like for the one billion people around the world that live in them. Unofficial housing being built by residents within Kibera. Photo: Abby Higgins Mildred Lunani knew that if she stayed in her village in Western Kenya she could pretty much count on...
Jamie Gentille, an HIV/AIDS advocate who works with organizations like ONE and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, shares her experience growing up HIV-positive in the US.  When I was a kid, my life was a secret.  I couldn’t tell my friends that I contracted HIV from a blood transfusion during open-heart surgery when I was three. I couldn’t tell my teachers why I missed so much school for medical appointments. That information stayed within the four walls of my house,...
Our guest blogger today is Justine Lucas, U.S. Campaigns Manager at the Global Poverty Project. Over a billion people on this planet live in extreme poverty.  Yet, for many of us, extreme poverty is a fairly abstract, intangible issue.  We feel it is an injustice.  We know it is intolerable.  We fight to change this reality.  But we are working to eliminate something we do not have the access or perspective to smell, taste, feel or with which to have...
“A cat has a lot in common with a politician. When it’s hungry it’ll come and rub up against you, and then the rest of the day it just sits there”. – Michael Soi Michael Soi is a Nairobi based artist whose pieces provide a personal reflection and satirical commentary on contemporary social, economic and political trends in Kenya. ONE’s Hannah Elansary got the chance to talk to Michael about his art. Michael in his studio. Photo credit: hiphopkambi.wordpress.com When did you start painting ? I...
This guest post is by journalist Abby Higgins, in partnership with The Seattle Globalist. It’s the first in a three part series which reveals the economically complex and culturally rich life of urban slums, and challenges our perceptions of what life is like for the 1 billion people around the world that live in them.  Benta, 11, at her home in Kibera. Photo: Abby Higgins I first met Jacktone Otieno when I was doing research on women’s rights in Kenya. A group...