Name:                      Mr. Bruce O. Odeny

Position:                  Secretary and Treasurer

Mailing Address:    Awori House 3^rd Floor

                                     Bank Street,  P.O. Box 3588

                                     Kisumu 40100 Kenya

Nationality:                 Kenyan

Current Job Title:      Advocate and Commissioner for Oaths;

                                      Chief Partner, Bruce Odeny & Company Advocates                                                

Contribution:

Name:                         Ms. Percilla Adhiambo Obunga

Position:                     In Charge of Vulnerable Girls and Orphans 

Mailing Address:      Kisumu, Kenya        

Nationality:                 Kenyan

Current Job Title:     Project Director, Four Pillars Project, Academy for Educational Development                                                             

Contribution:

Ms. Percilla Adhiambo Obunga brings to the Sandy Happy Children’s Home nearly 10 years of professional experience dealing with vulnerable children in Kenya.  Ms. Obunga will offer to the project expertise in the identification of orphans and other vulnerable children, advisement on programming to meet the needs of the children, and consultancy on how to coordinate systems to serve the orphans effectively and sustainably. 

Background:

Growing up in rural Kenya, Ms. Obunga experienced firsthand the struggles faced by young girls in Kenya’s rural communities.  Starting Class 6 at her rural primary school (US system 6th Grade), there were over 30 girls in her class.  When she sat for her Class 8 (US system 8th Grade) national examinations for secondary school qualification, only two girls remained.  The others had either become pregnant, been married off, or dropped out due to obligations at home.  This inspired Percilla to pursue a career geared towards empowering young girls and other vulnerable children in Kenya. 

Finishing from Ogande Girls High School in Homa Bay, Kenya in 1996, Percilla went on to study Home Economics at Moi University in Eldoret, a course which she later changed to pursue sociology as this would give her more opportunity to empower the girls in Kenya.  In 2001 Percilla volunteered as a Community Mobilizer in a Girl Education and Early Childhood Development Program organized by CARE International in Migori, Kenya.  She worked as a mentor promoting educational activities for young girls through community sensitization and child-to-child support.  Upon completion of her work with this program and despite significant pressure to continue her home economics study by family and community members, Percilla decided to go against cultural norms and change her major to Sociology.  She obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Moi University in 2002 and subsequently received a certificate in Information Technology from Strathmore University in Nairobi in 2003.

After completing her undergraduate education, Percilla volunteered as a Community Mobilizer.  This time her work was with the Africa Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) in Homa Bay, Kenya and the program aim was to provide HIV/AIDS education and care and support to Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs).  As a volunteer, she implemented programs to reduce the stigma of HIV in rural Homa Bay, promote behavior change, organize People Living With AIDS (PLWA) groups, and arrange for the development of micro-finance groups for young women.  In terms of OVC care and support, she conducted community and individual assessments to determine the needs of vulnerable children in the area and application of effective programming to meet those needs.  The program sponsored 250 orphans and children at risk to attend secondary school and provided for all of their needs.

After volunteering with AMREF, Percilla took a position as Program Coordinator for The Children Behind (TCB) project organized by Catholic Relief Services from 2004-2008.  TCB gives provision of care to over 5,000 orphans and OVCs in Homa Bay District.  The program provides education sponsorship, healthcare, HIV/AIDS prevention activities, and basic needs (food, clothing, and emotional assistance) to the children.  The program goal was to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS in Homa Bay, a district facing many of the problems associated with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, including a high number of AIDS orphans and exceeding poverty.  Percilla coordinated all of the programming, logistics, and human resources of the project, and she further maintained the organization’s database of children and oversaw the allocation of project finances. 

Percilla currently is the Project Director of the Four Pillars Project organized by the Academy of Educational Development (AED), an international education NGO.  The Four Pillars Project aims at empowering 800 vulnerable young girls in Siaya District, Kenya.  The project facilitates professional development of teachers to better meet the needs of young girls, scholarships for high potential young girls, training of community mentors as a means to empower young girls, and sensitization of the community on matters involving girl children.  As director of the project, Percilla sees to it that the project objectives are met, manages human resources, oversees the finances of the organization, and provides progress reports and general evaluation of the project to AED headquarters in Washington D.C.

 With so much experience in managing projects geared towards bettering the lives and providing opportunities for orphans and other vulnerable children in Kenya, Percilla will be a vital advisor in the process of finding orphans and organizing the provision of services and programming for the children helped by the home. 

Percilla currently resides in Kisumu – Kenya.

Name:                         Mr. Martin Diemo

Position:                     Treasurer and Financial Controls

Mailing Address:       P.O. Box 2376

                                      Kisumu 40100, Kenya 

Nationality:                 Kenyan

Current Job Title:      Certified Public Accountant; Owner, Martin Diemo Consultancy

Contribution:

Mr. Martin Were Diemo brings to the Sandy Happy Children’s Home over 30 years of professional accounting experience.  Having served in financial management positions for international corporations such as General Motors and Coca Cola and currently running his own management and accounting consultancy firm, Diemo will advise the board on effective financial management practices in all aspects of operations and monitor the implementation of internal controls at the organization.  Additionally as an upstanding member of Kisumu society, he will facilitate the development of relationships with builders and materials suppliers, conduct costing analysis, and facilitate a tendering process to find high quality service providers offering the lowest possible prices. 

Background:

Mr. Diemo is currently the proprietor of Martin Diemo Consultancy, a consulting firm offering general management consultancy, market research, capital raising advice, balance sheet restructuring, tax advising, financial modeling, and accounting system design.  He started his firm after retiring from an illustrious career of financial management. 

Martin graduated from Alliance High School in Nairobi, arguably the most prestigious public high school in Kenya, in 1972 and went on to study commerce at the University of Nairobi graduating in 1976 with a Bachelor of Commerce (Honors), Accounting Concentration.  In 1979 he passed a rigorous examination and received the designation of Certified Public Accountant. 

Following his education, Martin worked for General Motors Kenya and East Trading Company as a staff accountant, and in 1981 he received a job as a staff accountant for Rift Valley Bottlers, LTD, a bottling subsidiary of Coca Cola Corporation.  He was employed with Coca Cola for nine years, finishing his service to the company as Chief Accountant.  Leaving Coca Cola, Martin went on to become financial manager for two different companies eventually retiring from corporate accounting as financial controller for Afro Meat Company, LTD., an organization with annual turnover of over KSHS 400 million (US $5.7 million). 

Martin has done many business training and professional development programs throughout his career, including computer training through Strathmore College and an in-depth leadership training course offered by the Industrial Society of London.   He further co-founded a business consulting firm in Eldoret, Kenya and worked as a counselor with the Kenya Management Assistance Program (K-MAP) offering financial advisory services to small enterprises.   

A long-time resident of Kisumu, Martin has served on many boards in the area.  He is currently the Secretary of the Kisumu Town Residents’ Association and a member of the Kisumu City Business District Association (KCBDA) Governing Council. 

Martin has five children.  He currently resides in Kisumu with his wife – a medical doctor – and his primary school aged daughter.  His other four children have all completed University degrees. 

 

Name:                         Mr. Alvin Opiyo Okinyi

Position:                     Student, Staff and Volunteer Liason              

Mailing Address:       Box 793

                                        Kisumu 40100, Kenya

Nationality:                 Kenyan

Current Job Title:       Volunteer Director Sandy Happy Children's Home,Student, University of Nairobi                                                   

Contribution:                                   

Mr. Alvin Okinyi brings to the Sandy Happy Children’s Home a fresh perspective.  Having faced many obstacles in pursuit of his dreams, Alvin has successfully overcome those obstacles to become the first member of his family to receive a university education.  He has keen knowledge and understanding of youth culture in Kenya and will serve as a valuable source of information on programming that will effectively engage the target group of the Home.   Furthermore, he will apply the skills he is currently learning in his study of business management to aid the Home in the development of income generating activities and will serve as a mentor to the children living and learning at the orphanage. 

Background:

Mr. Okinyi is currently a student studying business management at the Kisumu campus of the University of Nairobi.  He graduated from Nyaduong Secondary School in Migori, Kenya with university level K.C.S.E qualifications. 

Coming from a very humble background, Alvin was born and raised in Migori, Kenya.  He is a first-born twin in a family of seven children.  He has faced many hardships in the process of defining his path to success.   With good scores on the K.C.S.E. and a strong academic record, he had to put his education on hold due to lack of finances.  For the last four years, Alvin has worked as a driver in the transport sector.  Though unfulfilled and lacking intellectual stimulation in his assigned work tasks, he tirelessly persevered to make enough money to take care of his 3-year old daughter.  In October 2008 his dream of pursuing higher education became a reality when he was introduced to an individual who believed in him and his abilities enough to pay for him to study business management and Information Technology (IT) at the University of Nairobi.

Though lacking the professional experience of other members, Alvin offers to the Board life experience crucial to the formation of effective programming for the children.   With a keen understanding of the situations many of the children face and as one of Kenya’s emerging leaders, he will offer a perspective crucial in the process of running the Home.  Further, the business/IT education he is gaining along with his passion for learning and high level creative capacity will be instrumental in the development of student-led income generating activities at the Home.  As evidence of his entrepreneurial spirit, Alvin saved enough money from driving to start his own second hand clothing stall in the Nyalenda area of Kisumu in 2007.  His story is inspiring and the successes he has and will experience in his life will help him mentor the children and allow them to see firsthand that no matter what other people may say with perseverance their dreams can be realized. 

Alvin resides in Kisumu with his daughter. 

Name:                         Mr. Brian J. Bourn

Position:                     Chairman

Mailing Address:        Box 793

                                     Kisumu 40100,    Kenya 

Nationality:                American

Current Job Title:      Consulting Project Manager, Sandy Happy Children’s Home;

                                        Kenya-based Manager, Sandy Happy Children's Fund

Contribution: 

Mr. Brian Bourn brings to the Sandy Happy Children’s Home over two years of successful project management and strategy development/implementation experience in Kenya.  Furthermore, he is firmly committed to transferring his skills to promote the advancement of Kenyan enterprises and charitable organizations. 

Background:                        

Mr. Bourn has been the Consulting Project Manager for the Sandy Happy Children’s Home since August 2008.  He was hired to provide the Kenya-based leaders of the organization with consultation on effective project management, to fundraise, to implement income generating activities, and to institute systems of internal financial control.  Due to recent events, he has taken on the challenging responsibility of directing efforts to reorganize the Home and strategically place it on a path towards achieving the vision of its founders.  

Brian is a native of Long Beach, MS, a town on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  He graduated in 2004 from the Else School of Management at Millsaps College in Jackson, MS with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree and subsequently completed a Master of Business Administration degree in 2005 in an AACSB-accredited accelerated MBA program at the same school.  During his undergraduate and graduate education, he was afforded two opportunities to study international business abroad. As an undergraduate he studied management with additional courses in economics and art history at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England, and as a graduate student he studied management science and marketing at the London School of Economics in London, England.     

After completing his MBA, Brian worked in Jackson, MS as a Human Resources Generalist for the nuclear power division of Entergy Corporation, the fourth largest public utility in the United States.  Struggling to find fulfillment in the cubicles and politics of corporate America, he decided to embark on an adventurous journey of service in the United States Peace Corps and was assigned to Kenya as a Small Enterprise Development Volunteer.  He came to Kenya in September 2006. 

As a Peace Corps Volunteer, Brian managed the marketing and general operations of the crafts division of a Kisumu-based NGO.   He helped the organization to find international wholesale buyers for its goods and also assisted in improving efficiency, product quality, financial management, and general operating effectiveness.  Additionally, he provided entrepreneurship training courses for youth and women’s groups and facilitated the startup of various income generating activities for groups in the Kisumu area and neighboring districts.   

Brian currently resides in Kisumu and is prepared to remain in Kenya until the Home is self-sustaining and successfully managed.      

 

Name:                         Mr. C.F. Sandy Pofahl

Position:                     Director 

Mailing Address:         6615 LBJ Freeway

                                       Dallas, Texas  75240 USA                               

Nationality:                    American

Current Job Title:          Founder/Managing Director, Sandy Happy Children’s Fund, Inc.;

                                       Director, Sandy Happy Children’s Home;

                                       Owner/Managing Director, Commonwealth Companies                               

Contribution: 

Mr. Pofahl brings to the Sandy Happy Children’s Home over forty years of successful business experience and the management of major real estate and energy oriented companies as well as extensive onsite experience in China, Africa and Europe. He has contributed both time and money in the development of non-profit organizations for over ten years and has a depth of personal contacts and financial resources that he has dedicated for the advancement of education and business opportunities for children in Kenya and the United States as well as the development of Kenyan medical, dental and vision services and technologies. 

Background: 

Mr. Pofahl graduated from high school in Riverside, California from where he went to Stanford University and received his Bachelor of Arts. After then attending Princeton Theological Seminary he returned to Stanford School of Law where he received his Doctor of Jurisprudence. In Dallas he was Legal Counsel for Lincoln Property Company and then formed Commonwealth Properties that developed homes and apartments in Texas and Oklahoma. With the significant increase in oil prices in the 1980’s he formed Commonwealth Energy with over 30 successful drilling programs. He now concentrates in business ventures relating to energy conservation and efficiency as well as considerable time devoted to the development of the Sandy Happy Children’s Home and Academy.