NYANAM TEAM
Nyanam is founded and staffed by Kenyans who are native to the region in which they work.
Jackie Odhiambo - Founder and Executive Director
Our founder and executive director is Jackie Odhiambo, who was raised by a widow and saw the loneliness and financial hardships that affected her mother. While studying in the United States at Williams College, Jackie helped start the Mboto Sunrise Primary school in her home village in Kenya. She also partnered with Kenya Water for Health Organization and her community to drill a borehole that serves over 3,000 households and the Mboto school. Jackie began working with widows in 2017, as they were often left behind in the community projects she worked on. Jackie believes that every woman, widows included, is worthy of love and respect. She leads Nyanam to help widows reclaim their God-given dignity, freedom and agency.
Rev. Nicodemus Agumba - Spiritual and Mental Health Officer
Nicodemus is a trained pastor with over 11 years of experience providing counseling services to church and community members. He has led the spiritual support and counseling programs at Nyanam since 2017. He has expertise in addressing family conflicts, relationships, and supports the youth program. Nick is an incredible advocate for widows and uses his pastoral and male position in the society to lead Nyanam’s partnerships with local authorities, and churches.
Teresa Millicent Wagumba - Justice Coordinator
Triza is an Advocate with a Bachelors in Law Degree from Moi University and a Graduate Diploma in Law from Kenya School of Law. Teresa has worked with several private legal companies as a legal assistant with her recent role being with KELIN Kenya as a Community Liaison. Currently, she a student at Kenya School of Law. She believes that the recognition of Human Rights is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world because each one of us are born with equal rights. She is passionate about children and Law , justice and fairness and youth inclusion formulation.
Beryl Ochieng - Leadership Circles Liason
Beryl has been part of Nyanam since inception. She has worked closely with Jackie to develop and implement all community projects, starting with Mboto School to currently organizing widows into leadership circles. She is a Kenyan educator and teaches children in primary school. In her volunteer role with Nyanam, Beryl is in-charge of internal communications with and between widows. Beryl is an astute community organizer and problem solver. Leadership circles rely on her for support in organization and management of widow groups.
Clifford Ochieng - Operations and Administrative Manager
Clifford is a trained teacher with 9 years of experience teaching youths and coordinating on community-based projects through community mobilization, project initiation, and community participation in project implementation. Clifford was also raised by her widowed grandmother and has been part of Nyanam’s since initiation. He was first the headteacher for Mboto Sunrise Primary School and led the registration and handing over of the school to the government. He also led community efforts in the borehole project. He currently manages all of Nyanam’s operations and logistics.
Rebecca Dero - Widow representative and Agroecology Trainer
Rebecca has been a widow for more than two decades. Being part of leadership circles at Nyanam has been a source of joy in her life. Rebecca is experientially skilled in agroecology and volunteers with Nyanam to support training of widows in sustainable agriculture. In 2016, Rebecca innovated a multistory kitchen garden which was reviewed and approved by the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization. In 2022, she was invited in to Tropentag Conference to present her innovation in Czech Republic and Germany. At Nyanam, Rebecca works closely with Jotham to help widows establish similar multi-storey gardens and achieve food security.
Romanus Kiamba- Finance Officer
Romanus is a highly motivated accounting and auditing professional with over 9 years’ experience. He is experienced in budget development, monitoring and reviews, coordination and implementation of projects. Romanus is a older of Bachelor of commerce (Finance), CPA(K) and certificate in oracle database. Further, he is a member of the Institute of certified public accountants Kenya (ICPAK). Previously, he has worked with Audit firm as auditor and pathfinder International in grants management.
Daniel Jaoko - Monitoring and Evaluation Officer
Daniel is a trained Applied Statistician and Monitoring and Evaluation professional. He has a vast experience in developmental programmes, implementation and review of monitoring and evaluation plans and has coordinated monitoring and evaluation for various projects. He also has experience in Project Cycle Management. Previously before joining Nyanam, Daniel worked with Educational Development Trust (EDT) in the Girl’s Education Challenge program, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) as a Research Fellow and Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant with Research Care Africa. Daniel has passion for Community development programs.
Evelyn Odhiambo - Youth and Communications Manager
Evelyn is a young communications expert with over 5 years of experience in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights and communications. She is a holder of a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism and Media Studies option Development Communication and a diploma in Public Relations. Evelyn currently serves as a member of the SheDecides Youth Accountability Panel, a Trainer4Life with Dance4Life Foundation, and a young leader in the Africa Free of New HIV infection steering committee. She is passionate and committed to challenging the narrative of dominant oppression through use of communication and the art of storytelling.
Pst. Eunice Otieno - Spiritual and Mental Health Officer
Eunice is a trained pastor with 10 years of experience who was brought up with a widowed mother under very harsh traditions. She has a Masters in Systematic Theology and conducted her thesis on the efficacy of counseling support services for marriage and family with Kenyan church and widowhood as one of the factors that contribute to family disintegration. Her counseling background spans seven years in which she has provided counseling support services to individuals and organizations, covering topics of mental health, psychosocial support and relationship management.
Jotham Oyugi - Livelihoods Coordinator
Jotham Oyugi Kenye is a trained agricultural irrigation engineer and community development expert with five years of experience in research institutions to groups at the community level. He is passionate about sustainable agriculture and aims to raise and empower people at the household level with agricultural knowledge and skill while providing food and nutritional security information
Jacinta Ojil- Officer and Youth Program Assistant
Jacinta has been a Community Resource Person for 5 years. She is a widow for 8 years and was also raised by her mother who is also a widow for 26 years.Jacinta joined Nyanam International in 2019 as a widow and was immediately elected as the secretary of her leadership circle because of her perseverance. Soon after, she was selected as Nyanam activity leader implementing our Voice of Change curriculum in her group for 3 years. In 2022, Jacinta was promoted to Nyanam widow mentor a position she has served in for 2 years until her last transition to Nyanam staff.
Jacinta has also worked as a volunteer at Pamoja CBO for 5 years. She is passionate about the growth and development of widows and their children, and excited to learning new things.
nyanam Board
Teddy Onserio, Board Chair, Africa Investment Advisor, US International Development Finance Corporation
Grace Kinda, Board Secretary, Entrepreneur, Iber Naturals
Yvonne Bungei, Board Treasurer,
Bethany Dixon, Member, Lecturer, University of Waterloo
Emmy Lippold, Member, Global Marketing and Strategy Director, Aprimo
Claudia Gisemba, Member, Business Analyst, MUFG Securities Americas
Angie Okhupe, Member,
Jackie Odhiambo, Member, Executive Director, Nyanam International