2024: Haller Wrapped
Another 12 months have flown by since our 2023 Haller roundup. As the year ends, we wanted to reflect on Haller’s 2024, and what’s in store for 2025.
Haller turns 20
2024 marked the 20th anniversary of the Haller Foundation, a huge milestone, and an opportunity to celebrate two decades of impact for smallholder communities worldwide.
Inspired by the work of Dr Rene Haller, who transformed a barren limestone quarry near Mombasa into a thriving ecosystem through sustainable interventions, Haller’s work has impacted the lives of tens of thousands of smallholder farmers.
The occasion was marked with a celebratory evening in London, bringing together the wider Haller community to reflect and fundraise for the next 20 years.
Haller App Refresh
This year we launched a refreshed version of the award-winning Haller Farmers App. Assisted by the JP Morgan Force for Good Program, the Haller team created new wireframes for the app that enabled new languages and content from partners to be added.
These updates enabled our partnership with La Maison de l’Artemisia, which saw the Haller Farmers App translated into French and a new wealth of medicinal plant knowledge added to the app. As the third most spoken language across the African continent, this has amplified the potential reach of Haller’s education and resources.
Improved Healthcare Access
One of the key focus areas for our team in Kenya has been Youth Health Education. With only one doctor for every 33,000 people in the rural parts of the country, improving access to healthcare and health education is critical to improve long-term outcomes.
In 2024, our team ran 55 youth-focused health education sessions, speaking with over 1000 students from 19 schools. The program aims to help young people make informed decisions about their health and well-being, through a combination of interactive workshops, screen presentations, and hands-on learning. Topics have ranged from nutrition and mental health to physical fitness and the importance of natural surroundings.
Alongside these focused sessions, we’ve continued to run our mobile clinic as part of our weekly community outreach program. This year the focus has been on immunisation, pre and postnatal care, and preventative treatments. In 2024 our team delivered over 2,000 immunisations to communities around Mombasa.
Sustainable WASH Solutions
Across 2024 our team in Kenya helped construct 8 eco-loos across 3 communities, improving health outcomes alongside agricultural benefits.
The eco-loo installations were accompanied by workshops on hygiene and health, to ensure that the benefits of improved sanitation systems are maximised.
Completed eco-loo for Muungano Kwa Mwalue community.
Enabling Access to Education
The Nguuni Education Centre is home to Kenya’s first free children’s library, with over 10,000 books available to children from nearby schools. This year, we had over 3000 visitors to the library, in addition to hosting arts and crafts sessions, nature walks, film nights, and group reading sessions.
Building a More Sustainable Landscape
Our tree planting efforts in Kenya continued in 2024. Our team works with local communities to plant trees as part of our weekly outreach sessions, but we also hold dedicated tree-planting initiatives across the year. In May, we commemorated National Tree Planting Day in Kenya by planting 86 trees, World Environment Day in June by planting 150 trees, and finally Mazingira Day in October with 43 trees.
Partnering for Impact
A core part of our mission to scale our impact is built on partnering with like-minded organisations. Recently we announced our partnership with the Tsavo Trust, dedicated to wildlife conservation and enhancing the livelihoods of local communities in Kenya.
The Trust has been instrumental in the protection and monitoring of Tsavo’s elephant population through ground and aerial surveillance programs, drastically reducing incidents of poaching in the region. A key component of this work is community engagement programs, focused on education around wildlife conservation and sustainable livelihoods.
Haller has partnered with Tsavo on this education mission, establishing IT hubs in local schools and increasing access to educational materials. The first project has delivered 20 laptops, speakers, and other tech equipment to two secondary schools in the Kamungi area. Kamungi has historically struggled with access to education and high levels of human-wildlife conflict.
Looking to the Year Ahead
As the impacts of climate change become increasingly apparent, and strains on the global food system multiply, we’ve never felt more certain about the need for collective action to support the world’s 500 million smallholder farmers at the heart of the agricultural industry.
Climate change has already led to a 21% reduction in agricultural productivity around the world since 1961, and communities supported by Haller have experienced years of drought followed by intense flooding. This cycle reduces soil quality and ultimately impacts crop yields.
In 2025 we will continue to develop our partner networks to share knowledge and best practices in regenerative farming and sustainable solutions, driving shared causes forward. Our educational efforts around regenerative agriculture will be scaled in Kenya and beyond through partnerships and technological developments, as we white-label the Haller Farmers App and use our proven formula for success to reach new audiences with the content they need.
If you’re interested in working with us, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Thank you for your continued support, we look forward to what 2025 has in store.
