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About Us

Who We Are:

The Isaka Memorial Foundation is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization registered in the USA that was founded in 2006 by Juma Achoki & Mary Otieno. Due to their personal experience losing brothers and sisters to the AIDS pandemic in Kenya they set out to help children orphaned by AIDS. The idea of starting the first center to cater for the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs) comes from personal encounters with AIDS orphans. The main driving force behind this foundation emanates from our deep spiritual belief that we are our brothers’ keepers, hence, our duty to provide assistance to the unfortunate in our societies. IMF currently supports Nyamila Community Center, which is managed and run by a local committee and a paid Manager from the community. The Center is located in Siaya district which is 20 miles from Lake Victoria, near the port city of Kisumu, Nyanza province, Kenya. This is one of the most economically depressed regions, with the highest prevalence of HIV in Kenya. The center does not institutionalize the children, but rather supports the OVCs within their own families at home or in boarding schools, and efforts are made to try and place children without surviving parents within extended families.

 

What We Do:

The Isaka Memorial Foundation’s (IMF) goal is to ensure that AIDS orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) have access to essential services in economically depressed communities. The services include: education, medical care, nutrition and food security, water and sanitation and income generating activities for economic empowerment. Early on, the foundation identified that a major problem was malnutrition and began to provide basic food items every two weeks. A medical camp was then set up to help manage the many illnesses, mostly coming from waterborne bacteria, every three months bringing in Doctors and medical staff to examine, test, and treat the illnesses. Then the foundation got a major sponsor called Alicia Keys foundation Keep a Child Alive. This gave us the opportunity to develop the Nyamila Community Center for Children, drill water well, and purchase a van for the Center. Our strategy is to harness existing community resources including local health facilities,  as well as the donations it receives from well-wishers to break the vicious cycle of poverty and of acquiring HIV, and to mitigate the impact of AIDS.

Board Members

Juma Achoki
Dr. Mary Otieno

Juma Achoki is the President & Co-Founder of Isaka Memorial Foundation. Mr. Achoki works as a Consulting Engineer with Opus Inspection for the State of North Carolina.

Lena McLennon

Lena McLennon is the Treasurer for the Isaka Memorial Foundation. She is the Head of Leadership Development for RBS Citizens.

Martin Nelson

Martin L. Nelson is a Board Memeber for the Isaka Memorial Foundation and serves as the Senior Bishop of Bezer Holiness Church, Inc., in New Rochelle, New York.

Njoki  Sandra  Kamuyu

Njoki Sandra Kamuyu is a Board Member of the Isaka Memorial Foundation. She retired from Willow Run Community Schools in 2013 and currently serves as a Field Instructor in the School of Education at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Mary Otieno is the Co-Founder of Isaka Memorial Foundation. Dr. Mary Oriento is currently the United Nations Population Fund (UN FPA) Country Representative in Zambia.

Charmaine Davis-Murray

Charmaine is a Board Member for the Isaka Memorial Foundation and is the Managing Director of Property Accounting for FirstService Williams.

Karen Ashley

Karen Ashley is a Board Member for the Isaka Memorial Foundation and creator of the Empower Me project. She works as a Marketing Manager at a global financial services firm.

Zahra Waliji

Zahra Waliji is a Board Member for the Isaka Memorial Foundation. She is currently the Program Coordinator for the Department of Surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Marcia Lyttle

Marcia Lyttle is a Board Member for the Isaka Memorial Foundation and works as a Global History teacher at Yonkers Public Schools in New York.

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