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Farmers First

Two years ago Marie Claire, a Rwandan farmer who lives in the far southwestern corner of the country, was unable to grow enough food to feed her three children. Yet this June, Marie Claire had climbing beans aplenty, feeding her family and selling 100 kilograms at a harvest buyback program.

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Microinsurance, Brick by Brick

I sit in a village in northern Ethiopia, surrounded by foothills covered with eucalyptus and cactuses. Camels wander in packs and hawks fly overhead. Bone-thin oxen and donkeys plod around wearily in the harsh sun. Stone is the single resource with no shortage—the houses and terraces are made from it and many of the fields look closer to a rock pits than arable land.