Spring Newsletter:
Africa is the Next Frontier & Agriculture is the Cornerstone

A fruitful partnership: innocent foundation in Rwanda

This year, the innocent foundation is an influential partner in our mission to alleviate hunger and poverty across sub-Saharan Africa with innovative, affordable irrigation technology. The innocent foundation, which aims to stop children dying of hunger and help the poorest families feed themselves, will support KickStart’s programs in Rwanda – the most densely populated country in Africa. Rwanda is a country with high impact potential in agriculture, thanks to its progressive and innovative government policies aimed at driving farmer-led growth. Rwanda’s agricultural policies in support of smallholder families are upheld as a leading example among sub-Saharan African nations and the country has a track record of effective government champions, such as former Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Agnes Kalibata, who now serves as the President for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Together with the innocent foundation, we are leveraging this potential and setting the stage for improving the food security, livelihoods, and resilience of rural families in Rwanda with tremendous momentum.

In addition to the innocent foundation’s significant role in accelerating KickStart’s work in Rwanda, the United Kingdom team of 100 employees at innocent drinks have come together to support KickStart with a gift that will help 150 people meet their fruit and vegetable needs for the year. We even have a Foundation Guardian, Kate Telford, who also serves as a champion of KickStart’s mission. Kate is excited to follow the progress of the partnership and to share the brilliant work of KickStart with colleagues and drinkers. Many thanks to innocent foundation and innocent drinks for their momentous support!

Meet Sarah Richson: Senior Human Resources and Administration Manager

We are excited to introduce the newest member of our team, Sarah Richson, an experienced international leader in human resources, and a consultant, speaker, trainer and executive coach. Sarah has almost 20 years of high level experience managing human resources and business across Kenya and the United Kingdom, and we are thrilled to have her on board.

Check out our interview with Sarah:

KS: What made you want to join KickStart? 

SR: To be honest, I have always wanted to do “meaningful work” and Kickstart is at the heart of that in my view.  My role working on Kickstart’s Employee Value Proposition is important to the critical path of value and therefore every evening my job satisfaction rating is met.  This is why I joined Kickstart… to make a difference.

KS: What made you want to make an impact on smallholder farmers across sub-Saharan Africa in particular?

SR: Africa is the next frontier and agriculture is the cornerstone of our survival. I truly believe that my continent’s core activity is still farming and our smallholder farmers are the main producers of most of our daily food.  In fact when other professionals go on strike, we always wonder – what would happen if our smallholder farmers went on strike? I want to be part of the change-maker population helping farmers excel and improve their livelihood while doing so. I am also deeply passionate about women and they make up a huge part of the smallholder farming population, and this is also why I decided to actively become involved in turning the wheel positively for these households.

KS: What is your vision for your time at KickStart? 

SR: Heading the Human Resource function at Kickstart is a great honour and my vision is simply to GoMAD (Go Make a Difference!) in everything my team does.

KS: What are you passionate about? 

SR: I am deeply passionate about human development and transforming lives with emotional intelligence and positive action.  I am a Certified Coach who finds any opportunity to coach and transform even in the day to day work.

International Women’s Day

Women represent about 70% of the agricultural workforce across sub-Saharan Africa, yet many women face unique obstacles in accessing resources, and gaining ownership of land and farming inputs. We’re here to change that – a majority of the farmers we trained in farming and business skills this year were women.

Your gift can empower a woman with the skills and knowledge that will help her launch a profitable business, despite the obstacles.

Help women overcome the obstacles of launching a business.

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