As many of you know, Faith Church remains one of the largest funders of micro loans through KIVA for the UCC.

This month, we highlight one of our many loan recipients.

Please continue to pray for and learn more about this amazing ministry of our church and contact Mike Ziegler to discuss how you and your family can help him choose loans to help fund each month!

Moringa Connect’s Story

There are 1.5B acres of fertile, uncultivated land in Africa with 175M subsistence farmers earning less than $2 per day. Moringa is a climate-smart, drought-resistant tree that provides a pathway to economic security. Farmers can earn 4-10x more income by growing moringa. However, they lack access to international markets.

MoringaConnect operates the first vertically integrated moringa business. It produces moringa-based nutrition and natural beauty products for wholesale customers and its own brands (Minga Foods, True Moringa). The team provides Ghanaian farmers with training and then buys their moringa produce at a fair price to increase incomes up to 10x. In 2019, MoringaConnect supported over 5,500 farmers, of whom 38% were female and nearly 75% amongst the poorest 20% in Ghana.

Since their previous loan with Kiva’s Labs: Social Enterprise program, Moringa Connect has launched a 150-acre nucleus farm that employs a cohort of women and vulnerable populations in the community. It is Ghana’s first certified organic nucleus farm and contains the largest solar irrigation project in West Africa.

This loan of $200,000 will be used to finance manufacturing activities and continue purchases of moringa from smallholder farmers in rural Ghana during COVID-related business disruption.

This loan is special because: it provides innovative market access for a superfood ingredient to improve the incomes of
Ghanian farmers.

Hey Kiva Fam,

We’re all about celebrating women and all things made-in-Ghana year-round, but
with International Women’s Day and Ghana Independence Day coinciding with the start of the moringa harvest season this week, we wanted to give you a glimpse behind the scenes of our organic moringa farm.

We proudly source much of our moringa from small farmers that we train and support across Ghana through our “outgrower” farmer model. These farmers typically have experience and access to land.

Our “Ingrower” farmers on the other hand typically lack access to land and
experience growing high value tree crops like moringa. Traditionally, women in many parts of rural Ghana and tribal minorities fall into this category. We offer training, tools, inputs like fertilizer and seeds, and solar powered irrigation to these farmers along with a dedicated plot of land on our organic farm.

Ingrower farmers participate in Village Savings & Loan Association (VSLA) groups run by a member of our True Moringa Farmer Outreach Team. These powerful circles of women meet regularly to save the income they earn growing moringa and other crops and lend their savings to individual members to invest in their farms and businesses. For each $1 we invest in organizing and facilitating these groups, $10 is generated through savings and loans.

Today, our organic farm creates 50 jobs and is home to over one million moringa trees & the largest solar-powered irrigation system in West Africa. We’ve got a lot of exciting projects in the works on the farm – stay tuned for updates throughout the planting season!

Celebrate with us & enjoy the fruits of the farm – use code INDEPENDENCE for 20% off this week: truemoringa.com/discount/INDEPENDENCE.

Moringa Love,
Kwami, Emily & Team True Moringa