Moringa- A Gift from God

While at Echo's (Education Concerns for Hunger Organization) conference in December of last year, I was reminded of the importance of this plant. My friend Andy from Echo, sent a bag of dried Moringa home with me years ago to try.

While in Liberia, I seen that it had been introduced to parts of Nimba county from Ghana.(that is what I was told...need to research that)
I can't help to think of the possibilities that this could provide for local farmers. While it would provide income generating activities for the small market holder, it would also provide nourishment.

What's great about this plant, it can grow almost anywhere and can take arid and semi arid conditions.

I will be studying this plant (hope to go to ECHO for two weeks this year) and I pray that we can be part of the production of it someday... somewhere.

Check out this video....

Out of Poverty-the old fashioned way

Last fall, I was told about a guy named Paul Polak. "Never heard of em" , I said. I was talking with another ministry explaining the ideas and the method I was thinking about to reduce poverty in rural areas, it was then I was told of the book 'Out of Poverty'.

I returned home and I Googled it, and ordered the book on Amazon right away. That book radically changed my thinking and it confirmed some thoughts and ideas that had been rattling around in my cranium for some time.
What the book did for me is to realize, that if I were to dedicate the rest of my life to working with the rural poor, the approach should be the old fashioned way, work for it.

While traveling in West Africa last month, I witnessed many NGO's that I would imagine are getting thousands and if not millions of dollars and Euros to eradicate poverty. What kind of impact are they having? I would imagine some. But is it the long range solution?

The point of this post is using grass roots approach to reduce poverty.(I won't use the word 'eradicate' on this blog, Jesus said the poor will always be among you) There are 800 million small subsistence farmers in the world and they tend to be overlooked for many reasons.

But Paul Polak, the founder of International Development Enterprises (IDE) has proven methods that they share with others in reaching the rural poor. I hope that we can incorporate these into our ministry.

(From his website)
Paul Polak is drawing on his 25 years of experience, Polak explodes what he calls the "Three Great Poverty Eradication Myths": that donations alone will end poverty, that national economic growth will end poverty, and that big business, operating as it does now, will end poverty. Polak shows that programs based on these ideas have utterly failed–in fact, in some areas where these approaches have been tried, such as sub-Saharan Africa, poverty rates have actually gone up.

These failed top-down efforts contrast sharply with the grassroots approach Polak and International Development Enterprises have championed: helping the dollar-a-day poor earn more money through their own efforts. Amazingly enough, unexploited market opportunities do exist for the desperately poor. Polak describes how he and others have identified these opportunities and have developed innovative, low-cost tools that have helped impoverished rural farmers use the market to improve their lives.

Good stuff...stay tuned for more developments...

Trashy Bags-our bags are trash

While in Ghana for a few days, we visited a very unique and much needed business.
One thing I quickly realized on my first visit to the Gold Coast, is that the trash is limited compared to the other parts of Africa I have been.
Maybe one reason is this company has collected over ten million water sachets (they sell water on the street in these convenient plastic bags) all over Accra.
They pay women a certain price for large bags that are full of these sachets. Income opportunity number one.
Then they are washed and sorted all by hand outside of this modest little factory/building.
Then they are washed and trimmed to specifics with a scissors...by hand. I think you get it here.
These bags are all by hand and are cleaning up the environment and turning trash into jobs and profit.
Its been one thing that has been on mind since first arriving on African soil...there has to be some way to make something out of all this plastic?
There is so much plastic in Africa, that Uganda has banned them.Plastic is interfering with water penetrating the soil as they have become a liner. Every little thing you buy in Africa, they want to give you a plastic bag...
Then we saw the sewing process and so on at Trashy Bags. Very impressive.

Hopefully this can spill over to other countries and provide more work and income so people can be self supportive. GO TRASHY BAGS!

If you want to order these they will be available in the US on this website in about two weeks...http://www.business-connect.net

You can go to Trashy Bags website here

On the Road again...and hold on

Traveling in Liberia is interesting, to say the least. The roads here are few and beat up. Fifteen years of war can do that to a country. To travel anywhere is not easy. First of all the public transportation here needs a major overhaul. The auto taxi's here are clunkers. We were to travel last Sunday to Cote d'Ivoire from Ganta, Liberia.
Our experience started as we went the 'parking station' to get a vehicle. There they sign you up for a taxi. Imagine this... in one little car they will load three people in the front seat(this includes the driver) and four people in the back seat. We could wait for the car to fill up or we could pay for extra seats. This was a easy decision. We each bought two seats. Cost? Ten bucks per seat. No problem. Ok, now my partner asks "do you have a spare tire?" and "does it have brakes?"
So we loaded up...when the driver assured of us both. One women joins us with a little baby and we are off.
Just after going down the road, I realized something. This thing was one piece of junk. We had to push start it every time and everything creaked, squealed,and begged for mercy.
One and half hours into the trip ...it started falling apart. The passenger front tire brake pad was found in the red clay dirt road as the driver realized we had problems.
So not only was our driver, a chauffeur, he was also a roadside mechanic.
He pulls out his bag of parts and starts to fix this beater. Two hours later, he assures us that we will be going soon. (this is after another roadside mechanic jumps in to help)
But,one thing I have figured out in Africa, that while it might take time, it usually happens. We arrived safely at the Cote d'Ivoire border after leaving six hours before.
We said good bye to our driver and prayed for the next passengers to ride in the 'car'.