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International Projects

Assistance to NGOs

We encourage nongovernmental organizations to improve awareness of the benefits of growing moringa to the people they serve and have provided technical assistance to them in developing moringa projects in Central America and Africa.

Most of our recent work as been with the Able and Willing International Education Foundation (AWIEF), a grassroots nonprofit organization headquartered in Frederick, Maryland that is dedicated to establishing schools and improving health and nutrition in areas of Africa in extreme poverty and need.  Mbuyu WaMbuyu (aka,”Puma”), AWIEF founder and president, was introduced to moringa by Ed Rau, owner of Sustainable Bioresources, LLC in 2010 and the Unitarian Universalist Congregation church of Frederick subsequently purchased 1500 moringa seeds for donation to AWIEF and starting the first field trials. Shortly thereafter AWIEF began to establish Moringa for Health projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali and Cameroon intended to produce highly nutritious moringa leaves and leaf powder for use in programs for severely malnourished children. Experience from other projects indicated that it one plan could not be adopted for all areas and that individual plans adapted to best-fit local needs, cultures, resources and business practices would be needed. These plans are summarized and available at these links:

Congo Plan – Using Scouts to Educate and Engage Families. Birds consumed the first field plantings in the Congo so an alternate approach to growing moringa had to be developed. Puma arranged for local families to plant and tend the moringa near their homes where better control of birds may be possible.  Key to this plan was one of the student aid programs that Puma implemented many years ago.  It is called Scouting For Education, a work and study program where students over 12 years can earn tuition, shoes and books while learning.  During summer vacation, students help on school construction projects while camping on site.  In the evenings they do academic projects and impromptu performances around the campfire.

After meeting with each family to explain the Moringa project, the students in the Scouting for Education Program will be given Moringa seeds.  They will be instructed how to plant, tend, harvest, process, use and market the moringa. Puma also arranged for a biologist at the University of Lubumbashi to oversee the project.

Puma with Moringa Seedlings in the Congo

Mali Plan – A Clinic-Based Program. The goals of this program are to educate the people of Mali on the benefits of using moringa and to conduct a demonstration project through a clinic based program. The educational program demonstrates how moringa can improve people’s health and nutrition by incorporating it into their daily diet. To demonstrate the powerful health benefits, Mamadou, the project leader has been working with the local Centre de Santé de Manabougou medical facility to treat the rampant malnutrition that is prevalent among children under five. The health center supports the community of Manabougou and the surrounding small villages. Moringa for Health in Mali will also encourage the growth and cultivation of the trees by local farmers.

Cameroon Plan – Social Media Campaign and Development of Grower Cooperatives. The goals of the Cameroon Plan lead by Richard Emeni are to provide educational information on moringa, develop a moringa industry and organize a group of families in the western part of Cameroon to grow, distribute and share profits from moringa using a type of cooperative known as Ndjangi, a traditional social system for accessing land, labor and capital. The educational campaign will involve social media, direct mail literature, newsletters, videos, interviews and testimonials to schools, churches and marketing at the point of sale.

Of the AWIEF moringa projects the project project at Manabougou, Mali near the Niger River and about 60 kilometers from Bamako, the capital city is the farthest along, continuing to expand and demonstrates the great potential of moringa to improve health, save lives and provide a new crop for sustainable agriculture. Since it was established 41 malnourished children have been enrolled in the clinic based program and health of the children greatly has improved greatly. For example, one 22 month old, severely malnourished child weighing only 16.5 pounds and 10 months behind the three-percentile growth curve was enrolled in the program. She had no appetite or energy, difficulty walking and her parents felt hopeless. After one year on the program’s regimen of moringa powder she weighed 24 pounds placing her just one month behind the 3-percentile curve. She now walks, runs, laughs, has a good appetite, looks pretty and has good hair color.

Another indicator of the success of this program is the level of approval and praise of the program by the health technicians, mothers and the children. The technicians report that the mothers are keeping to the powder distribution schedules and are glad to avoid the long trip to obtain the other dietary supplements that the children often rejected. The children say that they love the moringa “health powder”.

For more information about the Mali program, project photos and follow the progress of the program please see AWIEF’s newsletters from December 2012 Spring 2013, May 2013 , Fall 2013 and Fall 2014. Perhaps the best news was in AWIEF’s Spring 2015 newsletter. Here Mamadou reports that there is now sufficient demand for his moringa powder that he can market a portion of his current crop to pay for improving his farming operation and support more treatment programs for children’s health – the program is becoming self-supporting. Congratulations to Mamadou and his helpers for this great accomplishment!

New Moringa Research Project Starting in Gambia

We have provided a large collection of moringa seeds of multiple species and varieties from diverse international sources for field trials planned in the Republic of the Gambia in western Africa.  This project will be carried out by Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) and Gambian students and coordinated by the PCV agricultural sector leader.  Plans are to distribute the seeds by three different modes:

1. Students from around the country attending agricultural sector training classes will take a selection of seeds back to their home villages for planting and will be asked to provide feedback on how well they grew. While this activity may not be supervised, it will provide an exceptional opportunity to collect growth data from many locations with diverse temperature, humidity, salinity, soil types and other growing conditions.
2. At main Peace Corps training site in the village of Massembeh, seeds will be planted in a large fenced compound. There PCV staff can provide oversight of operations, water and monitor the trees.  A live moringa seedbank will be established there, with several trees of each variety in their own section.
3. A selection of seeds will be taken to the ecovillage of Sandele for planting in a fenced enclosure. This will provide additional data from on the Atlantic side of the country.

From these trials, we hope to collect species and variety-specific data on seed germination rates, tree growth rates, disease and pest resistance, palatability and value as fodder.  Analyses of the data from the planting trials can be used to inform selection of the best species and varieties for various regions and applications, and production of locally adapted trees for larger scale production plantings.