Growing opportunities that can weather change
Jackson is a farmer. His father was a farmer. Since Jackson left school, he has grown crops with his own two hands to raise and feed his family. He’s now a grandfather, and still, he tends to his coffee, maize, potatoes, and sheep on a small farm in Kiambu County, Kenya.
For years, unpredictable weather has made it harder to count on a good harvest. Jackson has noticed the once plentiful rainfall sometimes trickles into devastating droughts, making it difficult to water crops and care for livestock. At other times, there is too much rainfall, creating unfavorable conditions for drying his coffee harvest. Every bit of innovation and new technology helps Jackson and other farmers like him make the most of what they have—despite the extreme weather.
In early 2026, Jackson connected with a Prosper Global program that provides access to a solar-powered dryer to process coffee beans. The dryer gives him and neighboring farmers the ability to dry their coffee quickly when conditions are wet and get it to market faster.
“It would take so long before it dries, when we had to depend on the sun,” Jackson explained. “But when the solar is there, it dries quickly....And most of the farmers now are happy.”
Jackson expects the solar dryer to raise the standard of quality for his coffee and increase his earnings. In turn, his higher earnings will help him invest in his farm and his family's future. “I have sheep, but when the coffee is better, I can buy a cow,” he said.
“Prosperity is updating your life to be better than it was yesterday,” said Jackson. “When you have good health and you have food, you have water, we can say that we have prospered.”
What prosperity means in Kenya
While Jackson now sees a brighter future for himself and his family, he also sees how he can do more to support others in his community. His plans to use some of his coffee earnings to support neighbors through community fundraisers. “When we have cash, we appreciate that you can also be able to donate—to be together with the rest,” he explained.
When we can be sure that tomorrow, your children [are] educated...we see that as prosperity.
Jackson, Kenya
His words echo a sentiment we heard across Kenya: Prosperity is a community condition, not an individual achievement. Across nearly every conversation, people in Kenya described the effects of drought as impacting their ability to prosper: water runs out, livestock die, food and income disappear. Competition over limited resources spur conflict. Where drought and conflict put communities under pressure, reliable livelihoods can help people weather hardship and rely on one another.
“If we can get chances of employment, the area becomes rich, the area becomes wealthy,” said Jackson. “We become independent ourselves.”
As part of our Voices of Prosperity initiative, we invited people across the world to describe prosperity in their own words. In Kenya, as elsewhere, many described prosperity as a collective effort that lifts up the community as a whole.
“We think it at the community level. Prosperity is important because we live in a shared environment,” said one Kenyan woman. “If only a few people are doing well while others are suffering, especially during drought or crisis, then the whole community still feels unstable.”
Looking forward, Jackson hopes to continue to improve his farming methods, turning 10 kilos of coffee into 20, or five liters of milk into 15, no matter what the weather conditions may be.
And while his children have not followed his path as a farmer—they live and work in Nairobi—he hopes they’ll always have a reason to visit. “At home, as a father, I should guide my people so that they are happy when they come home, we have something to eat. That is prosperity,” said Jackson.
Read more stories like Jackson’s
Through Prosper Global's Voices of Prosperity initiative, more than 1,100 people across six countries and four continents shared what prosperity means in their own words. Their perspectives shape how we work alongside communities so more people can move beyond survival and pursue prosperity on their own terms.
