When Jake Harriman was an infantry and special operations platoon leader in the U.S. Marine Corps, he saw firsthand how extreme poverty creates desperation and fuels violence.
He saw a need to combat violence and extremism by fighting poverty. To be successful, such efforts have to be locally driven and sustainable — not fed in perpetuity by disaster relief operations and handouts from aid workers.
After seven years in the Marine Corps, Harriman pursued his idea at Stanford University and from there Nuru International was born.
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About the author
Jeff Tyson@jtyson21
Jeff is a former global development reporter for Devex. Based in Washington, D.C., he covers multilateral affairs, U.S. aid, and international development trends. He has worked with human rights organizations in both Senegal and the U.S., and prior to joining Devex worked as a production assistant at National Public Radio. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in international relations and French from the University of Rochester.