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Culture Code - Insist on Impact

We aim to make hunger history and farmers more prosperous. Impact is our guiding light.
Culture and Values

Our Culture Code is our shared vision of our ideal culture at One Acre Fund.

What is culture? It’s the way we act when we’re at our best. It should reflect our values (the big beliefs that anchor everything we do as an organization). But our culture is more personal. It captures how we each strive to act. It’s the daily behaviours that matter the most—and make us uniquely us. This is our culture.

This is the One Acre Fund Way.

Maureen Ongachi with her child

Maureen Atemo Ongachi, a 30-year old mother of four, farms on a quarter acre in Western Kenya. Before One Acre Fund, she could only harvest one bag of maize each year and would take manual work to try and buy enough food for her family.

“There were days my children would sleep hungry because there was no food. This would make me feel so sad that, as a mother, I was not able to provide for them. Sometimes I would wonder if there was something I had done to deserve this,” says Maureen.

Maureen Ongachi, one of the farmers we work with in Kenya.

With quality seed and fertilizer at the right time, and receiving proper planting training, Maureen has increased her harvest almost four times over.

“I was elated. I remember harvesting and just bringing all the bags here and staring at them in amazement.”

Maureen Ongachi with her harvest

Due to her poor harvests, she was forced to take up other manual jobs to make more money to pay school fees and buy food for the house. Sometimes, the kids would get sent home from school because of the fees. She would also spend a lot of money taking her children to the hospital because they suffered from diseases caused by poor nutrition. Now her children have three meals a day and she has the option of buying fruits and vegetables.

“They are now active and look stronger, they play around the compound, something that they would not do before enrolling with One Acre Fund. They enjoy good health," she says.

“If I walk around the village, I see a big change. All the kids used to be home in the day because the parents didn’t have ways to send them to school, but now they're in schools. And now parents get to spend time with their families and their children because they don’t have to travel far to find some work to do each day to buy food.”

Maureen Ongachi with her children

With extra savings, Maureen has bought solar lamps and drying tarps from One Acre Fund. She also bought a sewing machine and wants to open a tailoring shop.

“My whole life, I’ve always had dreams and plans, but back then, I didn’t know how I would ever actualize any of them. They were just dreams. I never thought I’d be able to live in a house like this one, but here we are. Now I know my dreams can be plans I can achieve. I can see a real way to accomplish these goals.”

Maureen Ongachi sewing

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