Julie Carney and Emma Clippinger

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2009

Julie Carney and Emma Clippinger

Gardens for Health International

Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

Food, Nutrition, Agriculture

The Bold Idea:

The Bold Idea: Enable HIV-positive individuals to improve their nutrition and health through low-cost sustainable agriculture practices.

The majority of people infected with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa are poor, with limited means to acquire the quantity or quality of nutrients needed for effective treatment. Ninety percent of Rwanda’s population depends on subsistence farming. However, seeds for high-nutrient crops are not available to the rural poor. Between 10 to 12 percent of the population faces chronic food insecurity due to inadequate production, insufficient arable land, high population density, and weak agricultural support services. Malnutrition not only increases negative drug side effects for patients living with HIV/AIDS but also limits the absorption and effectiveness of the drugs. It weakens the immune system, hastening the disease’s progression. HIV/AIDS, in turn, limits the labor productivity of infected individuals, pushing individuals and families further into poverty.

Gardens for Health International (GHI) provides legal support to communities of people living with HIV/AIDS, enabling them to form small business cooperatives and to gain access to arable land. GHI provides micro-loans to the cooperatives, delivers nutritional training and identifies and provides the initial investments for high impact agribusiness opportunities, such as tomato greenhouses, fruit tree nurseries, mushroom production and animal husbandry.

Biography:

Julie Carney and Emma Clippinger share the belief that access to land and food are basic human rights, especially among vulnerable populations. Julie graduated from Yale in 2008 with a degree in Political Science and received the University’s prestigious Gordon Grand Fellowship. Emma has spent the past three summers in Rwanda, first with the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative and then with GHI. In May 2009, Emma will graduate from Brown University with a degree in International Development and Comparative Literature.

Moment of Obligation: What experiences led to the desire to start your own organization?
JULIE: I joined Gardens for Health shortly after it was founded. Since working and learning in Rwanda, 'moments of obligation' are more or less a daily occurrence.

EMMA: In the summer of 2006, I interned with the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative in Rwanda. I was moved by the Clinton Foundation's noble mission of achieving universal access to life sustaining treatment for HIV/AIDS patients. However, I was troubled to learn, through my work that summer, that malnutrition significantly undermines the effectiveness of drug treatment. Available food aid was not only short-term, but its production detracted from the local economy as it often came from countries as distant as the U.S. Especially in a country as fertile as Rwanda, it seemed that it should be possible for HIV/AIDS patients to take control of their own nutrition and food production.

Gall to Think Big: What has given you the ability to dream big and take on deeply entrenched social and difficult problems? (Such as experiences, skills, events, etc.)
JULIE: We are very very very lucky to have the opportunity to work on an idea we care deeply about. My university was immensely supportive for us, allowing me the opportunity of a post-grad year to work on our organization. Of course, I have to recognize my supportive family--my parents have chosen professions grounded in a humanitarian impulse, and at the same time they are passionate about what they do. They have always encouraged intellectual curiosity as well as a “give-back” ethos, and have raised me and my siblings to be aware of our privilege and its responsibility.

EMMA: That one summer with the Clinton Foundation was profoundly formative. It instilled a sense of urgency in me; I learned to move fast, think big, and work with leaders across many fields. I have combined that experience with the energy that I naturally draw from interactions with individuals. The participants in the GHI program work tirelessly to overcome incredible odds in ensuring their own good health. I feel tremendously privileged to be in a position where I am able to mobilize resources on their behalf.

New and Untested: What's innovative about your new idea for social change?
JULIE: Our approach is pretty simple--we support individuals infected with HIV/AIDS to grow nutritious food for themselves and their families. What is innovative about our approach, particularly compared to other nutrition programs for people living with HIV/AIDS, is our emphasis on sustainability, food sovereignty, and nutritional independence.

EMMA: Gardens for Health works at the intersection of HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, and agriculture to address the "nutrition gap" in HIV/AIDS treatment. Throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, projects designed to improve agricultural production often fail to address the needs of a population's more vulnerable members, such HIV-positive individuals. Gardens for Health designs agriculture and nutrition programs that actually target the specific needs of HIV-positive individuals. These programs provide not only a continuous supply of nutritious food, but also a source of income and community empowerment.

Seeing Possibilities: What are the most important qualities to be a successful social entrepreneur?
JULIE: Being really really good at articulating your vision, and then persistence.

EMMA: Perseverance—you will often feel discouraged. Overactive imagination—you often create your own (better) reality, but need to simultaneously recognize (actual) reality and know when it is appropriate to act. The ability to tell stories—social ventures are always a collaborative effort, but in order to bring others on board, you need to be able to communicate your passion through stories. Flexibility—though you are always planning and projecting, you need to be able to completely change your course when unexpected opportunities arise.

Which musical artists/albums get you going and keep you inspired?
JULIE: The latest East and West African burned mixes that you find in little shops. I rarely know the artists' names, but they always hold what everyone's dancing to.

EMMA: Amadou & Miriam Nina Simone Bob Dylan

What books do you recommend (pleasure, work and anything in between)?
JULIE: Related to our work: Michael Pollan, Amartya Sen, Frances Moore Lappé, Vandana Shiva.

EMMA: Anna Karenina and 100 Years of Solitude (all time favorites) Development as Freedom (favorite change the world book),

Which websites do you visit often (work and/or personal)?
JULIE:

• gardensforhealth.org

EMMA:

• nyt.com
• huffingtonpost.com
• allafrica.com
• salon.com
• socialedge.com
• nextbillion.net
• ted.com
• mint.com
• beyondbeermoney.com, started by a classmate at Brown; she promises to keep updating it I am always always checking our Google Analytics page

What advice or quote do you keep close to your heart as a social change leader?
JULIE: The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution --Paul Cezanne The thing is, I really like saying yes. I like new things, projects, plans, getting people together and doing something, trying something, even when it's corny or stupid. I am not good at saying no. And I do not get along with people who say no. When you die, and it really could be this afternoon, under the same bus wheels I'll stick my head if need be, you will not be happy about having said no. You will be kicking your ass about all the no's you've said... No is for wimps. No is for pussies. No is to live small and embittered, cherishing the opportunities you missed because they might have sent the wrong message...What matters is that you do good work. What matters is that you produce things that are true and will stand. What matters is that the Flaming Lips's new album is ravishing and I've listened to it a thousand times already, sometimes for days on end, and it enriches me and makes me want to save people. What matters is that it will stand forever, long after any narrow-hearted curmudgeons have forgotten their appearance on goddamn 90210. What matters is not the perception, nor the fashion, not who's up and who's down, but what someone has done and if they meant it. What matters is that you want to see and make and do, on as grand a scale as you want, regardless of what the tiny voices of tiny people say. Do not be critics, you people, I beg you. I was a critic and I wish I could take it all back because it came from a smelly and ignorant place in me, and spoke with a voice that was all rage and envy. Do not dismiss a book until you have written one, and do not dismiss a movie until you have made one, and do not dismiss a person until you have met them. It is a fuckload of work to be open-minded and generous and understanding and forgiving and accepting, but Christ, that is what matters. What matters is saying yes. --Dave Eggers

EMMA: One Dr. Martin Luther King quote has long resonated: "We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood -- it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, "Too late." "