Where Am I Giving: A Global Adventure Exploring How to Use Your Gifts and Talents to Make a Difference

24Marine Wages War on Poverty Through Locally-Led Change (Kenya, 2010): Fighting terrorism by fighting poverty / Starting with the end in mind

MANY NONPROFITS AND NGOs TALK about “working themselves out of a job,” but few do. There are people with those jobs who rely on regular paychecks to feed their families and pay rent. There are people who are passionate about the work and don't want it to end, so they don't let it.

When I arrived in Kuria, a remote rural district in Kenya near the Tanzanian border, in 2010, I visited an NGO that was intent on leaving even though it had just arrived.

One of the first things I noticed about the countryside in Kuria was the corn. Some of it was short, and some of it would've won a blue ribbon at a county fair in Iowa.

Josephat waited alongside the road, dwarfed by a wall of bright green corn behind him. He greeted me with a handshake and a proud smile, and together we disappeared into his field.

The path through the corn led to Josephat's home. His wife poured corn into a tin bucket, letting the breeze blow away chaff. Their five children played in an open courtyard bordered by three structures.

“I was almost ready to give up on life,” Josephat told me. “I was working a lot in the field. Two acres were getting only six bags of corn. It wasn't enough. After Nuru comes, I plant one acre and harvest 30 bags.”

Nuru International seeks to end “extreme poverty in rural areas by equipping local leaders with the tools and knowledge to build self-sustaining, ...