by Kate Holby
September 16, 2021
2 Comments
As I think about how our community in Kenya is growing and we are growing in parallel a world away, my mind turns to all of you, our customers. Having not been to Kenya in two years, my work is no longer driven so much by the deep empathy for people I know. Rather, I am waking up and moving forward driven by this larger idea of a world that I want to know. This distance has made it harder to stay motivated. It has made it harder to package tea boxes and ship orders. But then I think of you.
Continue Reading →
by Kate Holby
May 03, 2021
Difna is the first to tell you that you don't have to be a "mom" to mother and you don't have to be family to act as a family. Our Ajiri scholars have taken to calling themselves part of the "Ajiri Family"--a testament to the love and devotion Regina and Difna show each child.
Continue Reading →
by Kate Holby
April 09, 2021
We're taking a scrap of optimism. We're not burdening it with the forethought of grief. We're cultivating it with every student we help to raise, every woman we employ, every box of tea we sell.
Continue Reading →
by Kate Holby
March 09, 2021
We initially decided to employ women to craft the Ajiri Tea and Coffee packaging because women tend to reinvest over 90% of their earnings back into their families and communities. But we continue to employ women not for what they are doing with their money but rather for what they can't do without it. Women in Sub-Saharan Africa provide the majority of the agricultural labor, yet own anywhere from 1% to 13% of the land.
Continue Reading →
by Kate Holby
January 25, 2021
Continue Reading →
by Kate Holby
May 08, 2020
Hakuna matata! What "Kenyan Time" teaches us about quarantine time. How we deal with our anxieties to constantly be productive, and our shifting perceptions on what "productivity" actually means.
Continue Reading →
by Kate Holby
April 29, 2020
This term of self-care, as we have come to know it, isn't just reserved for bath bombs or face masks, but is an evolving idea that women can reclaim some time or some money for themselves. Perhaps we don't talk enough about the new clothes or the hair or their new cooking pot because it doesn't align within the common narrative of selfless motherhood and womanhood.
Continue Reading →
by Kate Holby
April 16, 2020
This past month seemed to float by. We were worried about sales. Worried about the health of our community in Kenya (225 confirmed cases of CV19 in Kenya). We were trying to figure out the transition to teaching by cell phone (not even smartphone) to our Ajiri scholars. And we were worried about how we are going to continue to pay 60 women in rural Kenya when the flow of orders has trickled.
Those worries are all still there. But this past week, instead of swirling amidst the stress and skimming the news and refreshing our browsers, we started to be still.
Continue Reading →
by Kate Holby
April 01, 2020
This perfect quarantine recipe is brought to you by the culinary creative, Annie Strong of Annie's Kitchen. This hardy soup combines classic comforting lentils with our zesty Ajiri Black Tea with Lemon Myrtle. Perfect for an early Spring dinner.
Continue Reading →
by Ajiri Online Orders
January 14, 2020
1 Comment
Our primary focus at the Ajiri Foundation is working with our students to become the best citizen--the best "you" can be. Our second goal, of course, is to improve academic performance. When school fees are paid, uniforms are bought, food is on the table, and there is a stable presence of support, our students inevitably do better in school. But sometimes, they don't. Potential, of course, is harder to measure than test scores.
Continue Reading →
by Ajiri Online Orders
July 25, 2019
Continue Reading →
by Kate Holby
March 28, 2019
Sales, expenses, assets, liabilities . . . a succinct way to sum up a business. But equally important in determining the health of a company is the emotional balance sheet. What percentage of pessimism? Optimism? Determination? Numbers don't tell the story of a business, people do.
Continue Reading →
