Family Profiles

Dear Friends – Our farmers in Rwanda harvested beans in June. They benefited from excellent seed, the appropriate amount of fertilizer, and extensive trainings from our field staff. We plan to enroll 18,000 farmers in Rwanda next season! — Eric Pohlman, Country Director, Rwanda

Console in front of her bean fields.

In Rwanda, the dry season begins in early June, a signal to our farmers that it's time to harvest their climbing beans. The harvesting process can take several weeks. Farmers must wait until their bean pods are brown and dried up. Then, they can pull the bean pods off their stalks, remove the bean seeds from the pods, and dry the seeds. Walking around the fields of Nyamasheke District, Rwanda, in June, you often see large plastic sheets covered in reddish-brown beans, drying in the sun.

Console, a twenty-five year old farmer who lives near Tyazo village, finished drying her bean seeds in mid-June, and was planning to harvest maize in early August. She joined One Acre Fund one year ago, and was looking forward to her future harvests.

Uwamariya wants to be a teacher.

"We have not been hungry since One Acre Fund came," she said. "We have had very good harvests to satisfy all members of the family."

Console lives with her mother and her four siblings. She has two younger siblings, who are twelve and six. Uwamariya, the twelve-year old, is not in school right now because the family lacks money for school uniforms and textbooks. However, with the recent bean harvest and the upcoming maize harvest, Console says the family will have enough money for Uwamariya to return to school.

Console has a different goal. "In my life, I like farming," she said. "We have enough land. My dream is that I can work hard and if I can grow many things I can buy an animal."

She was particularly interested in new crops that she might learn to cultivate with One Acre Fund, including cassava and bananas.

"We have enough beans now," she said. "Maybe One Acre Fund can experiment with other crops."

Next season, One Acre Fund plans to begin offering education on banana planting techniques. Console was excited to hear about the new training.

"Bananas are very important for Rwanda," she said.

One Acre Fund Featured by the PBS Newshour

One Acre Fund was recently featured in a story on the PBS Newshour website. The story explains One Acre Fund's program model, and the impact of One Acre Fund on the lives of our 23,000 farm families. To read the story, go to: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/africa/jan-june10/oneacre_06-22.html

Building Strong Managers

To build strong managers that can oversee entire districts of operation for One Acre Fund, we've created a new "assistant field director" position. For details on this new role, check out: http://www.oneacrefund.org/blog/?p=287

Join One Acre Fund's next Board Call!

After the success of last March's open board call, we are very excited to announce that we will once again be opening the beginning of our next board call for an exclusive opportunity to share our 2010 progress and goals. Please mark your calendar for Monday, August 23rd from Noon - 12:45PM EST.

In order to access the meeting on August 23rd, please dial: 617-572-3131. Press 1 to attend the meeting, then enter the meeting ID (3983) and press #. We also ask that you RSVP for the call by replying to this email, as this will allow us to send you materials in advance.

Call to Action!

Please think about one person that you think might want to hear about One Acre Fund, and forward this message to them. Don't be afraid to get personal - tell them the reasons for why you are involved yourself. Thank you for being a friend to our farmers and children! Comments? Need to update your information?

One Acre Fund - www.oneacrefund.org

Corporate Address: 1954 First St. #183, Highland Park, IL 60035 - Donations and Correspondence: 1742 Tatum Street, Falcon Heights, MN 55113