Dividing her time between Kenya and Canada, Nina leads the Kenyan team in collaboration with the CEO and manages the liaison with the Canadian board of directors. She is responsible for Kenyan and international outreach for funding, resource and partnership development. She left a successful business to her partner in Ottawa, Canada in 2004 to volunteer in Kenya. During that time, she began assisting children with education and entrepreneurship training and established Elimu to make her projects sustainable.

Nina has over 30 years’ experience in project management, partnership development, international marketing and business strategy planning. She worked over 14 years marketing international travel and cultural exchange programs and services to youth and student markets. In 1996, she started a successful marketing consulting firm in Ottawa, Canada. She has conducted market research and implemented communications programs for culturally diverse consumer markets. She has lived and worked in a variety of cultural environments. Nina holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology from the University of Western Ontario, Canada.

An entrepreneur in his own right, Kamotho holds a Commerce Degree from Kenyatta University and owns a successful automotive business in Malindi. He is in charge of Elimu’s Kenyan operations, handling all aspects of management and administration including financial planning, budgeting and accounting. He works closely with the President and shares the responsibility for liaison with the Canadian board of directors and the Kenyan team.

He is in charge of human resources and mentors youth in our programs, especially high school graduates in employability and entrepreneurship. Prior to Elimu, he worked as Program Manager—Business Development at Kenya Enterprises Resource Centre (KESREC) helping local community groups with business planning and start-up including savings and loan training, budgeting, business plan writing and resource mobilization.

An expert in community development, majoring in sociology, Jonah has over ten years’ experience working with local and international NGOs. At the Kenya Red Cross, he set up a successful community resource centre. During a placement in the UK with VSO-Jitolee, he was attached to Peace Child International, where he worked in Be the Change Challenge, a program designed for schools focusing on change of behavior to help ease global warming. He also worked with Meadows Children Centre, where he designed a very popular program that enhanced the involvement of fathers with their children by creating a “Footie Fives” football team. Jonah has worked as project officer with CRS/Caritas on a water and sanitation program where he was in charge of the social aspect of the project, as well as liaison with state and non-state agencies.

At Elimu, he is responsible for policy development, program design and implementation, community relations and mobilization and program capacity building to ensure long term sustainability of projects. He was instrumental in the design and set up of Elimu Resource Centre (ERC) in 2016 and the successful move to its larger private premises in 2018. Under his able management, ERC was awarded 2nd prize in the community library category at the Kenyan Library Maktaba Awards in 2017 (just 15 months after launching) and again in 2018.

Peter established the financial record keeping procedures for Elimu and created the digital accounting records for our annual financial reporting. He liaises with Elimu’s Treasurer in Canada to maintain all the necessary financial reports. He produces the annual financial statements for the organisation and oversees the annual financial audit of the Kenyan accounts, which form the bulk of Elimu’s annual financial reporting.

He also set-up the staff payroll system and other internal control measures within the organisation and ensures that Elimu meets all the required standards for record-keeping and filing of relevant data to the government. Peter has a Bachelor of Business Management (BBM) from Mount Kenya University and he is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with more than 15 years experience.

Maina began as a volunteer with Elimu when operations were run out of our founder’s home. Today, he heads up the technical and training development aspects of Elimu’s e-Learning programming.

He manages all aspects of the Kolibri edutech platform and coordinates with our Education Program Officer on content development. He also manages our media facilities and equipment and works with our Communications Coordinator on print and video production.

Anthony is an IT enthusiast with a degree from Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology in Information Technology (IT). He is certified Cisco Networking Academy instructor and launched Elimu’s Cisco NetAcad in August 2019. He loves technology and enjoys working with youth.

He leads our IT club that brings together a network of young Cisco alumni who are passionate about technology. He is active with Elimu’s community-based activities and keenly engages in sensitizing the community on the importance of technology which today is found in every part of life. He also loves music and playing musical instruments. He set up the eHub at ERC to host the Cisco courses and is responsible for procuring and maintaining the digital equipment for the program.

Wambui is in charge of enrolling and keeping up-to-date with all of the beneficiaries in our projects. She administers Elimu’s School Sponsorship Program and follows up our sponsored children at school and at home. She runs the microfinance table-banking group for parents at Elimu Resource Centre. Wambui has been dedicated to Elimu for over a decade.

She originally headed the household of Nyumbani Kwetu as housemother. During that time, with fifteen children under her care and a household to run, she successfully pursued a self-directed study program to complete her high school education and received her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education in 2015. Then in 2017, she completed a college program in Social Work. Wambui is guardian of Elimu’s mentorship approach and liaises with staff on any issues related to the social welfare of children in our programs.

Pauline helped to design and structure Elimu’s Mobile Digital Reading program which takes the ERC digital tools out to schools during the term, when students cannot easily make it to the Centre for their studies or reading. She enjoys being in the classroom with students and working hand in hand with teachers in identifying and addressing students’ difficulties in various subjects. She is in charge of training teachers on eLearning and is skilled at handling the edtech digital platform which provides a variety of relevant educational content for students in the Kenya education system.

Her personal goal at Elimu is to promote literacy and improve performance for primary and secondary students. She also works to sensitize youth about how to access the Kenyan University and College Central Placement Services (KUCCPS) and Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) to ensure that after high school they get to join universities and colleges and pursue a career that will make them contributing members in society. Pauline has always been very active in sports with short distance running and netball being her major strengths. During her free time, she coaches netball in a nearby high school.

With a degree in Fashion Design from Kenyatta University, Neema is the first trained fashion designer to work at Elimu. She builds on her creativity with a good foundation in organization and planning skills and a high level of flexibility. Her past experience includes working with community projects engaging young women in economic development.

Neema leads the Elimu Sewing Project where she oversees key project areas including Elimu’s Artisan Makers Space and the Elimu Girls’ sewing sponsorship program. She joined the Elimu team to support the agenda of long-term sustainability for the organisation. Through collaboration, she is helping to create opportunities for economic growth for our sewing alumni. She is also steering the development of the Artisan Makers Space to increase the type and breadth of skills we offer our sewing alumni and to scale it to make it available to more artisans in the Malindi community. She manages Elimu’s Fashion and Design program which aims to journey with our sewing graduates to foster thriving tech-savvy artisans. Neema also leads the Pendo Artisan Ragdoll production, supporting Elimu’s engagement with various partners in Kenya and abroad to develop new markets for the doll.

Rosemary brings years of experience to the Elimu team in the creation and implementation of communications strategies, especially for digital media and media relations. With her strength in storytelling and love of the written word, she showcases the success stories from our program beneficiaries to share with those who make it all possible. Rosemary manages Elimu’s social media platforms and website, keeping Elimu’s image lively and up-to-date. With her keen eye and ability to see into peoples’ character, she manages the photography and videography needs at Elimu. You will find Rosemary behind the camera at most Elimu events and activities, though she also gains a lot of joy training the youth interns under her charge.

Rosemary has a degree in BSc. Journalism and Mass Communication from Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology. She coordinates Elimu’s internal and external communications efforts and develops the annual communications plan. Her efforts have helped to increase visibility amongst key stakeholders such as the Ministry of Education, other government bodies and program partners. She also manages the front desk operations at Elimu Resource Centre ensuring a welcoming environment for our guests. Her sensitivity to the connectedness of people and her training in human-centered design thinking have motivated her to find solutions to challenges facing her community especially the youth. She thrives in a team-focused environment and enjoys the challenge of working with others to co-create and implement the educational and skills development programs at Elimu. At Elimu, she has found the means to integrate her career goals with the social impact goals for her own life.

Ian is in charge of normal operations at the office and organizing and maintaining all aspects of our physical plant. He has vast experience in this field and a singular dedication to excellence. Ian brings to Elimu a wide range of experience in first aid, fire safety, disaster management, as well as conferencing and warehouse management among others.

He recently completed the Cisco Networking Academy online course in IT Essentials – receiving his certificate from the Canadian High Commissioner during Elimu’s Youth Info Forum in December, 2019. He’s now a certified Cisco technician. Prior to joining Elimu, he worked at Pope Francis Rescue Centre and at Kenya Red Cross Society. He also has strong interpersonal skills that allow him to engage with the Elimu beneficiaries and the general community in a variety of settings. Ian is ‘jack of all trades’ and a team member who is depended upon by his colleagues.

Esther started her career journey at Elimu as an intern before joining the Elimu team to support the Skills Development department in the area of Entrepreneurship. She is now in charge of all aspects of welcoming guests to Elimu Resource Centre. She ensures a positive welcoming experience and atmosphere at our reception. She liaises with all project areas to coordinate data collection and reporting. She supports the executive team as well as all departments with administration activities and assists with registration and record-keeping for all beneficiaries. She works with the team that trains our sewing students on financial and social literacy skills and helped design the curriculum for the entrepreneurship and life skills training for our sewing project.

Esther has a big heart for community service. Her background is in Social Work with a degree from Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology. She brings her concern for the welfare and development of all people especially children and youth to her work at Elimu as she supports the team with all aspects of engagement with our beneficiaries.