“Like tiny seeds with potent power to push through tough ground and become mighty trees, we hold innate reserves of unimaginable strength. We are resilient.”
– Catherine DeVrye, The Gift of Nature
There are times in life when it is our great privilege to witness the natural resilience of the human spirit, and the ability of the body to heal itself given the right conditions. This was the case for Lindsey G., a friend of Strong Harvest, when she traveled with a non-profit organization to Kenya to do community development work in 2017.
During the trip, Lindsey and her teammates traveled to the mountainside village of Magina, Kenya, and met a medicinal herbalist named Moses. Moses grows many nutritious plants, including herbs, spices, and vegetables, that he sells in his community. While visiting Moses’ home, Lindsey spoke of the moringa tree. Lindsey had learned about moringa from Strong Harvest. Excitingly, Moses knew of moringa and its innumerable benefits! He is unable to grow it at his elevation of 7,000 feet above sea level, but he buys dried moringa leaf powder wholesale from Nairobi and sells it to his clients. Lindsey and her team gave Moses two varieties of moringa seeds from Strong Harvest, which they were able to plant in trays to germinate, and which Moses planned to distribute to trusted individuals in the valley where moringa can grow.
A five-minute walk from Moses’ house brought Lindsey and her teammates to the house of a woman named Nancy. Nancy is a widow and mother of four who lives with her youngest child and three of her orphaned grandchildren. She is diabetic, has high blood pressure, and is blind in one eye. When Lindsey met her, Nancy had been completely bedridden for a year. Lindsey used a Strong Harvest Peer Educator training manual to help teach Nancy and her family about the benefits of eating moringa, and then the team decided to buy some moringa leaf powder from Moses to find out if they could see improvements in Nancy’s health over the course of the nine weeks they were in the area.
Nancy began by eating one spoonful of moringa powder in her porridge every morning, made faithfully by her caretaker, her youngest son. Here is what happened next:
* 7-8 days after introducing moringa into her diet, Nancy was getting up out of bed and joining the family in the living room, getting dressed, and engaging in conversation!
* Within two weeks of eating moringa daily, Nancy cooked a meal for her household – something she had not done in a year! Her energy increased, and her mood improved.
* 3-4 weeks after beginning to eat moringa, Nancy went to town a couple of times to do errands!
At the end of the nine-week trip, Lindsey and her team gave Nancy and her family a gift of 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of dried moringa leaf powder, bought again from Moses, intended to last until Nancy’s firstborn child graduated from welding school.
Lindsey recalls, “They were grinning from ear to ear. They shouted for joy, singing praise and gratitude. Nancy hugged the bag of moringa and started cradling it like a baby.”
Nancy is resilient. A knowledge of and connection to a source of moringa was all she needed to experience transformation. Moringa empowered her body with the nutrients it needed to give her back a fullness of life, and we hope that will bring health and wholeness to many more people in her community.
Thank you for sharing your story with us, Lindsey!
Wishing health and wholeness for you and your loved ones,
Rick and Jeri, for all of us at Strong Harvest
More from Strong Harvest:
What is moringa & why does it matter?
Moringa provides great health, increases family income, and protects the environment.
Here are the facts about this “miracle tree”!
Moringa Tree Research
Our website contains links to a wealth of research on the many benefits of moringa.
Dive deeply into moringa studies!