How we got started:

The Joy Center School and Orphanage was started by Mr. Gideon Saulo and is in the remote farming community of Ochuna in Migori County, Kenya, about 15 km from Lake Victoria, close to the Tanzania border.
Gideon Saulo was born in 1988 and lost his father while in 2nd grade. Life was very hard for him and his mother, Pennina, who survived by selling bits of maize, cassava, and millet at the village market. Gideon was sent home from school when he could not afford the fees; after a lot of hard work, his mother raised the money and sent him back. Having lost his father and almost losing his chance at an education drove Gideon to commit himself to helping orphans get a good education regardless of their lack of tuition money.
When Gideon was in 7th grade, two Peace Corps volunteers—Steve and Betty—visited the school and tested the students. Gideon did very well, and the Corps helped pay for his secondary schooling and the University of Nairobi. Gideon earned a degree in Microbiology.
While still at the University in 2010, he started the Joy Center School in cooperation with the Ochuna Craft Cooperative (where traditional crafts are made in the Luo tribal style). The introduction of plastic and metal pots had made it difficult for individuals to sell their work at local markets at a decent price. The cooperative enabled elder women such as Gideon’s mother to pass on their skills to a younger generation. More women had joined the cooperative, and more products were available for sale abroad.
In the beginning, there were only 30 students and four teachers. Both the Joy Center School and the Ochuna Craft Cooperative were housed in a thatched-roof building on church grounds. Then, in 2013, Gideon met Bill Westbrook, who came to work at the Lalmba Association’s Lalmba Ochuna Dispensary (https://www.lalmba.org, based in Longmont, Colorado). The clinic was across the road from the school, and the two men became friends. When Bill returned home, he and Gideon stayed in contact. When Gideon graduated from the University, Bill and his wife Denise came to attend the ceremony. Through Bill, Gideon met Hannah Tramasuer and Richard Smith from the UK. They helped Gideon create the Ochuna Craft Cooperative Facebook page (look for OchunaCraftCooperative!)
In 2016, Tamera Peterson came to work at the Lalmba Ochuna Dispensary. She had bought crafts from the cooperative from the Facebook page. She connected Gideon with Dr. Stephanie Ball and Judith, who also came to buy crafts.
In 2017, Gideon met Dale Small through Tamera. They had many long chats, which resulted in the Joy Center’s first GoFundMe. The School needed to be able to build outside the church compound to continue growing. Through new friends and their support, Joy Center staff have built 8 brick classrooms, four with permanent roofs and four with temporary roofs. With these new buildings, the Joy Center School became the Joy Academy School and Orphanage.
In 2021, the school has 216 orphaned students, 10 teachers, 2 cooks, 2 guards, 1 manager, 1 director, 15 community board members, and friends from the USA.
Two additional large isolation rooms with a shared restroom are being built for those exposed to COVID-19. These should be completed soon. The biggest problem facing the School is the fluctuating level of donations. Gideon and friends are working to develop a more sustainable funding model that will allow the school to focus more on the necessary projects and the continued care and education of the students!
In 2025, the Kenyan Authorities asked us to transition from an orphanage to a Foster Care. This year will be spent improving the organization to fulfill our important mission even better.

Our organization: Joy Center Foundation

Joy Center School and Foster Care, Organizational Structure:

The Joy Center School and Foster Care, which began as a school and orphanage, is primarily run with much love, hope, and faith. In 2021, the management of the operations was organized as a foundation – Joy Center Foundation. The Joy Center Foundation Constitution was adopted on September 30, 2021 (as per the Second Schedule of the NGOs Coordination Regulations, 1992).

Here are some excerpts from the Constitution:

The over-all objective of Joy Center Foundation is:

  • The advancement of education by the provision of school programmes by providing sponsorship to enable students to attend school at no cost, and by such other means and services as the Organization may determine.

At a more detailed level, this involves:

  • To provide at no cost to recipients the school tuition, educational materials and supplies, food, and related services for orphaned and indigent students living in and around Ochuna Kaler, Nyatike Sub-county, Migori County, Kenya, hereafter referred to as Ochuna Kaler.

  • To provide benefit to all people living in and around Ochuna Kaler by providing education and care for their orphaned and indigent students, which will also result in benefit to all the people of Kenya.

  • To prevent and relieve poverty in Ochuna Kaler by providing and assisting in the provision of education, training, and necessary support to their orphaned and indigent students so they can generate a sustainable income and become self-sufficient.

  • To preserve and protect the health of the orphaned and indigent students of Ochuna Kaler by providing programmes to ensure that students and their families have access to nutritious meals and food sources, to the provision of health care checks, and to other services as the Organization may determine.

Membership

Members of the Organization will include the subscribers to this constitution and shall not be less than 5 at any time. The following classes of membership are available:

Ordinary Membership

All members subscribing to this Constitution shall be ordinary members.

Corporate Membership

Corporate Membership shall be open to any association, institution or business that is interested in supporting and furthering the aims and objectives of the Organization.

Honorary Membership

The Organization may admit to Honorary Membership any person or corporate body whom it wishes to honor for services to the Organization.

Associate types of membership

The Organization Trustees may create associate or other classes of non-voting membership, may determine the rights and obligations of any such members (including payment of membership fees), and may specify the conditions for admission to and termination of membership of any such class of members.

Other references in this Constitution to “Members” and “membership” do not apply to non-voting members and non-voting members do not qualify as Members for any purpose under the Charities Acts, General Regulations or Dissolution Regulations.

Application for Membership requires proposer and seconder.

Every application for membership of the Organization shall be proposed by one and seconded by another Member of the Organization.

Management:

There is a Board of Directors, generally meeting four times per year, which functions as a policy organ, making decisions on how to promote the goals of the Organization and how to prioritize evolutionary steps and initiatives. The Board consists of at a minimum 5 and at a maximum 9 members including the honorary posts of Chairperson, Secretary, and Treasurer.

The responsibility for the daily activities of Joy Center is delegated to the Chief Executive Officer. This person shall be an ex-officio member of and may be Secretary to the Board.
The Chief Executive Officer shall be assisted by the employed staff of the Organization to manage the day-to-day affairs of the Organization.