International Programs

Nelly was born in Western Kenya and trained as a nurse at a college in Kisumu. When she married a man from Kuria, Nelly moved to Nyametaburo and began working at the Dispensary as the head nurse. She joined Nuru out of a desire to proactively care for the community through trainings and large scale health awareness campaigns.  She is married to Boniface and has one child.

Erick was born in Isibania, where he currently lives with his two younger brothers. After finishing secondary school he attended the Kenya College for Accountancy (KCA) University in Nairobi and obtained his Kenya Accounting Technicians Certificate from the national examination board, KASNEB. Before joining Nuru, Erick worked as accounts clerk at Border Point Hotel in Isibania and Masafa Hotel in Tanzania. He enjoys the opportunity to interact with Nuru members in his work.

Peter is the oldest of ten siblings. He was born in Taragwiti and moved to Tanzania after secondary school to attend the Victoria Institute of Tourism and Airline Management, where he studied tour operations and marketing. Before joining Nuru, Peter worked in sales and marketing with Oxford University Press and as an operational agent with Tanzania Game Trekking. He is very active in the community, serving as youth leader of the Bukira West location. As CED Field Manager, he is dedicated to delivering Nuru’s services to the community.

Julius is 24 years old and was born and raised in Kuria. He is the oldest of 6 siblings, and has been involved in community activism since his teens.  He started a self-help group for vulnerable women in his community (i.e. HIV patients, second wives, widows, single mother, etc), and has worked and volunteered with Kenya Volunteer Development Association for the past 8 years (yes, he started when he was still in Primary School!).  He earns money for his family by farming maize, and in his free time he works with foreign volunteers that come to Nyabohanse. He is thrilled to be working with Nuru as the Volunteer Partner Program Field Manager, and is excited to introduce volunteers to his home community of Kuria.

James is a native of the Nyametburo and Nyangiti area.  He attended secondary school in Kisii but returned to his home community to work as a representative with British American Tobacco Co. He has since left BAT and is excited to be working with Nuru to end extreme poverty in his home community by teaching farmers to increase their maize yields. James is married and has 3 young children.

Francis Magige was born in Tanzania, but moved to Kenya to finish his academic studies when he was 12 years old. After completing secondary school, he was trained and certified as a teacher and began a long career in education. Francis served as a head teacher in Kenyan public schools for over 20 years before becoming an Education Officer for the Ministry of Education in 2000.  In 2006, he retired from the ministry, but continued to work as a secondary school teacher in Tanzania in order to pay for his children’s education. Francis joined Nuru in 2009 as the Education Field Officer, where his lifelong experience as an educator guides him everyday as he works to improve the state of education in Kuria West. Francis is married to a Mama Christine, also a teacher, and has 5 children.

Community Development Committee (CDC) Chairman    Philip is a native of Kuria, Kenya and an experienced leader of community-based partnership and empowerment programs. After completing secondary school he traveled to Nairobi and entered seminary to become a priest. He later sacrificed his aspirations for the priesthood to join the workforce and assist his father in providing for the education of his brothers and sisters. Philip worked for over two decades at Standard Bank in Nairobi, starting as a clerk and eventually rising to become a customer service manager and accountant. Now retired, Phillip has chosen to invest his retirement years back into his home community where he’s involved in poverty reduction efforts both in his local church and community. He and his wife Anastasia have 5 children.

Eunice was born in Tanzania (just a few minutes walk from Nyametaburo and Kuria). After completing her Form 4, she enrolled at a teacher's college in Kenya and worked in the Kuria area. Eunice manages the Nuru Field Office in Nyametaburo, and assists in all kinds of clerical work. She is married and has five children.

Lucas was born in Nyametaburo, Kenya, where he completed Form 4 at Isibania School for Boys.  He is a trained community health worker and has worked within the community for over 10 years.  Lucas is also an active participant and leader at local churches and primary schools. Before joining Nuru Lucas worked as an HIV/AIDS programme officer in Kuria district. He is married to Christine and has 5 children.

Andrew was born and raised in the Nyametaburo and Nyangiti area, and has traveled throughout the Bukira West District.  He completed Form 4 at Isibania Secondary School and worked as a clerk with the electrical commission of Kenya.  Before joining Nuru, Andrew worked as a monitor with Alliance Tobacco company where he developed deep relationships with local farmers.  As Nuru's Educational Field Officer, Andrew leverages those relationships to encourage local farmers no longer plant tobacco but to join Nuru and grow maize. He is married with two young children.

Moses was born in Nyametaburo. He has five brothers and three sisters. After completing secondary school he attended Nairobi Aviation College, obtaining his diploma in sales and marketing. He worked in cotton exports with Badugu Ginning in Tanzania before returning home, where Nuru had recently launched the Community Economic Development Program. Eager to work with the community and create awareness of Nuru, he immediately volunteered with the CED Program. Moses continues to educate and serve the community as CED Field Manager.

Chelsea is a recent graduate of Stanford University, where she earned degrees in Sociology, Arabic and Feminist Studies. Throughout her undergraduate career Chelsea has taken the opportunity to explore issues of community development and grassroots social change from both inside the classroom and beyond. In addition to her formal studies, she has traveled to countries in South America and the Middle East in order to conduct independent research and service learning projects dealing with education and women’s issues in the developing world. She is interested in cultivating these interests into a lifelong career in international development and is thrilled to have to opportunity to work with Nuru as their first intern in Foundation Team Three.

David is a medical student with broad academic interests which include philosophy, economics, public policy and engineering. He began his studies at UCLA, majoring in Civil Engineering with a focus on water resources. In 2005, he founded the Fellowship for International Service and Health (FISH), an organization which focused primarily on screening and education in Mexico. After leading FISH for two years, he went on to consult for an orphanage in Mexico and later the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Turkey. He attended Stanford Medical School from 2008-2009 and has taken a year off to join in the fight against extreme poverty with Nuru as Healthcare Program Manager on Foundation Team III.

Aerie has worked extensively with community economic development and micro-finance both in Europe and in Africa. Before coming to Nuru, Aerie worked with the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Foreign Commercial Service, and the Peace Corps. He earned his BA in International Affairs from John Cabot University in Rome, Italy and his MA in International Conflict Analysis from the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK. While serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Burkina Faso, he developed micro-financial strategies to address extreme poverty in the Sahel Desert.

Janine is a Georgia girl who earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology from Georgia State University and went to West Virginia to pursue a Masters. While earning her Master of Public Health, Janine found that she was passionate about creating sustainable and holistic healthcare solutions that would help people survive, thrive, and live life to the full! Janine gained experience with community mobilization from a grassroots campaign she initiated in Morgantown, WV to raise funds, awareness, and promote advocacy for children in need of inexpensive drugs for preventable illnesses. She also learned how to lead volunteers during her experience as Program Manager for a local WV Habitat for Humanity affiliate. Her travels to Tanzania to research community health programs assured her of the specific calling on her life to "go". Gratefully, she met a group of dreamers in Nuru who coupled vision with action, and she's thrilled to have the opportunity to fight to end extreme poverty alongside them.

Jake earned his MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in June 2008. He graduated with distinction earning a B.S. in Systems Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1998. Upon graduation, he served seven and a half years as an infantry and special operations platoon commander. During that time, he led Marines in chaotic, ever-changing environments on four operational deployments throughout the United States, the Pacific Rim, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Southwest Asia/Middle East, including two combat tours in Iraq. He was awarded the Bronze Star for actions in combat during his second tour in Iraq. Jake has international experience working throughout Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia/Middle East, Africa, Europe, North and South America, and Australia/ South Pacific. He has specific economic development and humanitarian assistance/disaster relief experience in Kenya, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Mexico.

Vivian recently finished her Peace Corps service in Bolivia, where she worked for two years with a micro-finance nonprofit, Pro Mujer, developing rural micro-credit services. She also worked with several smaller organizations in the community of Sucre on planning and strategic projects, applying skills she developed as a financial healthcare consultant with Triage Consulting Group in San Francisco. Vivian earned a B.S. in Business Administration and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. She is excited to join the Nuru team in creating sustainable solutions to end extreme poverty.