Kisumu Education & Environment Fund
Our Work
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2022:
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Recognizing the loss of all fund raising for Life Centre School due to the death of Pastor James Samo's father, K.E.E.F. stepped in to provide funding for the school's immediate and most critical needs beginning in October 2022, including paying teacher salaries and food for the students.
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2023:
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The Kisumu Fund became a 501(c)(3) public charity incorporated in the state of Virginia.
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We continued to provide funding for teacher salaries and food for the students.
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Assisted in negotiating a new one-year lease with the property owner, which gave K.E.E.F. the first right of refusal to purchase the land on which the school is located. K.E.E.F. also began paying the monthly rent for the school.
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Provided funding for new equipment for the chemistry lab.
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2024:
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We continued to provide funding for teacher salaries and food for the students, and purchased new schoolbooks for the children.
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The owner of the land on which the school operates announced its plans to sell the land, so K.E.E.F. executed an agreement to purchase the land. Without the purchase, the land would have been sold to developers and the school would have closed.
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2025:
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We continued to provide funding for teacher salaries and food for the students.
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Following Kisumu government review of the land purchase agreement, K.E.E.F. became the owner of the property on which LCS is located.
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Provided additional funding to LCS to reduce food insecurity issues for students.
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Hired True Blue Investments, an design/build firm in Kisumu that has built schools and other commercial buildings, to develop architectural plans for a new school building and a dormitory block for orphans and street children.
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2026:
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We continue to provide funding for teacher salaries and food for the students.
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Worked with True Blue Investments to finalize the design of the new LCS classroom, dormitory and administrative wings.
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Began a capital campaign to raise funds to build the new school.
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The Team

Jalmer D. Johnson
Executive Director
Nancy Johnson
Board Member
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Jalmer has dedicated his 40+ year career to working with and for labor unions worldwide to defend, protect and enhance employee wages, benefits, working conditions and job security.
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Nancy has spent over two decades teaching and tutoring immigrants to the U.S. in English as a Second Language (ESL) programs.
- Jalmer and Nancy have been supporting Life Centre School through K.E.E.F. since 2022.
- At K.E.E.F., Jalmer is responsible for fundraising, financing, due diligence, distribution of funds, regulatory compliance and long term organizational development.
- Nancy is responsible for supporting education development programs at LCS.
- Nancy and Jalmer are both members of the K.E.E.F. Board of Directors.
Pastor James Samo
Community Director/Life Centre School Director
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James grew up in a mud hut in east Kisumu and saw from a young age the debilitating impacts of poverty and lack of educational access on Kisumu's poorest communities
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Along with his wife and partner, Alice (Life Centre's head administrator), James has spent much of his adult life serving his community
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He and Alice began their community education efforts in 2016, with only seven students, and now educate over 300 students, year-round, at their creation: Life Centre School
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James has also focused on improving food security for LCS students and their families, housing for orphans and street children, and vocational education for teenagers


Jalmer M. Johnson
Founder
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Jalmer has worked in the service/development world for over a decade, including with multiple AmeriCorps conservation and poverty non-profits, as an agricultural extension volunteer with the US Peace Corps in Madagascar, and further service in east Africa spending six-months in 2019 at a rural Kenyan school funded by a small US-based NGO
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Jalmer received an M.A. in International Policy & Analysis from American University's School of International Service in 2023; the development of K.E.E.F. served as his capstone project
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Jalmer has served as Executive Director of K.E.E.F. and is currently on the Board of Directors.