The Team
Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean. ―Ryunosuke Satoro
Founders and Staff
Clay Churchill
Amy Churchill
Executive Director and Co-Founder
Clay Churchill
Clay is also known as MacGuyver as he always has what you need to fix most anything, anytime, anywhere. He has been married to his wife for 25 years and is a fun dad who loves to spend time with his three teenagers. After taking his family on a trip to Kenya, it changed the way they saw things. While Clay works full time as a project manager for LexisNexis, he comes alive on the ground in Kenya and is an integral part of Just One. Among many other things, he oversees Just One Africa operations, directs trips, and continues to grow our on the ground partnerships. He loves the people of Kenya, and is passionate about helping to provide clean water and caring for the orphans and vulnerable children. Clay loves adventure, especially with his family, and is always ready for an exciting new experience.
Email:clay@justoneafrica.org
Director of Operations and Co-Founder
Amy Churchill
Amy loves to serve others, it doesn’t matter if it is preparing meals for her personal chef clients back in the states, or if it means walking home to home to home in rural Kenya conducting follow up on our Clean Water Program. She is at home wherever she is, especially if a cup of coffee is in her hand, her husband of 25 years, and 3 awesome (adult) children are with her. Coming from a long line of family members who dedicated themselves to caring and serving others, it seems only natural to continue on with the biggest blessing, which is being able to serve together in such significant ways as a family. Seeing how her children have embraced the changes they have made as a family to start up and grow Just One Africa, have been a constant source of inspiration and reinforce that it really does take JUST ONE person to make a difference!
Email:amy@justoneafrica.org
The Board
Maureen Starr
Nelson Guzman
Noel Coleman
Joel Stocksdale
Board Member
Maureen Starr
Maureen Starr is a Kenyan native who currently serves as Director of Giver Services for Georgia National Christian Foundation. In her role, she enjoys helping generous families create giving strategies and be wise stewards of what they have been entrusted with to experience the greater joy of generosity.
Maureen was born and grew up in Nairobi, Kenya until moving to the USA in 1999 at the age of 19. She graduated from Southern Arkansas University with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree. Early on, Maureen knew that she wanted to live her life making a difference in the lives of others and being an agent of positive change. While enrolling their only daughter in Kindergarten, it was then that Maureen and her husband Tito met Joanie Fowler a teacher at the school who also happened to be Amy’s mother. Joanie learned Maureen was Kenyan and shared about the work and ministry of Just one Africa. Maureen was intrigued. And as God’s timing would have it, Just One Africa kept bubbling through conversations in Maureen’s circle, church and finally Maureen had an opportunity to meet Amy and Clay Churchill.
Maureen knew that this was a divine connection and the Lord had provided a way for her to give back to her people in a way that truly makes a difference and is sustainable. Maureen is solution-minded and considers it a privilege and a blessing to serve on the board of Just One Africa. Maureen also places a high priority on family and loves to spend as much time with her family as possible. She and her husband, Tito, of 18 years reside in north Georgia with their 12-year-old daughter.
Board Member
Nelson Guzman
Nelson has been a supporter of Just One Africa from the very beginning. Nelson traveled with Clay Churchill on the first official Just One Africa trip to western Kenya in 2012. After seeing first-hand the fruits of what Just One Africa has been doing in the local communities of Kenya, he knew he wanted to do more. Nelson has always believed in giving back and helping others. As a Malpractice Insurance Broker in business, Nelson helps Doctors determine the best Insurance Coverage for their Medical Practice so they can serve their patients and focus on the best care they can provide. As a Husband of 18 years, to his amazing wife, and father to their 3 teenagers, Nelson is continually striving for the opportunity to show his family and those around him how making a change, whether big or small, is possible for each of us.
Board Member
Noel Coleman
Noel started looking at life differently early on. From starting a general contracting company at the age of 12 and reselling “deformed” cookies from a local business on the school bus to winning the Ranatra Fusca individual’s award for creative thinking, looking at the world differently has always moved him toward what’s possible. After leaving Georgia Tech while studying engineering, Noel has gone on to develop skills from sales to executive management, strategy and planning helping grow and turn around a company from a small print shop to a SaaS model software provider to the healthcare industry. Noel’s love of children (starting primarily with his 3 boys) drives him to seek ways to protect and serve the most vulnerable from financially adopting children to getting involved in trafficking advocacy. Noel is very excited to be privileged to serve on the board of Just One and help them grow their reach and abilities. Noel lives north of Atlanta with a wife who’s out of his league and three “all-boy” boys.
Treasurer
Joel Stocksdale
Joel earned a Master’s Degree in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2001. Since 2001, he has held a number of accounting and regulatory compliance roles, and currently works as a regulatory compliance consultant. Joel has long been interested in clean water projects and was excited at the opportunity to join the Just One Africa Team. As Treasurer, Joel assists primarily with business, finances, legal, and regulatory considerations and functions.
Our Partners
John and Leah Njoroge
John and Dorcus Parit
Valley Light Home - Maai Mahui, Kenya
John and Leah Njoroge
Valley Light Home is the dream realized and long term commitment of a couple, each born and raised in Kenya. After years of planning and careful strategy, Valley Light Home opened its doors to take in 6 children in August 2011, the youngest little one a child of 6 weeks. The mission is to provide holistic care to children who have been orphaned or abandoned, or from families who are not able to look after them. To date, VLH houses 27 children.
Valley Light Home was carefully constructed to be a home rather than an institution for up to 36 children (infants to 18 years of age). The project is managed by local staff, including a full-time social worker. Houseparents live at the home full-time where family life includes providing professional care and guidance for physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual needs. As some of the children placed here are HIV+, caregivers are trained to administer medication, monitor nutrition, and care for individual health needs.
John and Leah both have PhDs. John has his in Philosophy and Leah has hers in Education.
Lenkai Christian School and Hope Beyond Center - Kimana, Kenya
John and Dorcus Parit
John and Dorcus Parit are the founders of Lenkai Christian School based in the Kimana area of south-eastern Kenya. This is a private Christian school with over 250 students ranging from Baby Class (Pre-School) to Class 8 (or 8th grade). Their vision is to offer a holistic education to local Kenyan children, to equip them with the best possible education, and to develop their individual potential while molding them into future leaders.
They are also the founders of Hope Beyond Transitional Center which cares for children from needy cases such as FGM, child marriage, child neglect, forced labor, human trafficking, and other abusive realities. The Center also offers non-residential support to orphans and other needy cases such as Albinism, within the neighboring community. Hope Beyond provides trauma therapy and counseling for these precious children.
John is the African Director of The Olive Branch Mission, a US and Kenyan registered nonprofit with many diverse projects in Kenya. John has received his Master’s Degree in International Management through the University of Liverpool.
Dorcus is the Volunteer Coordinator of the Water Filter Project by Just One Africa which involves training and distribution of the filters to communities. The Water Filter Program has seen distribution of over 1,000 water filters to various communities within a 150 kilometer radius from the school with tremendous success and great impact. Dorcus is also an active leader within the local and national stage where she is serving with the Local Peace Committee. She is the Kajiado County Treasurer of the National Women Organization, and sits on other local and national committees involved in fighting for the rights of women and children while advocating against FGM and other forms of child abuse. She is also passionate about empower women and providing many sustainability opportunities for them.
Besides all the children they help raise, they have 6 amazing children of their own, 3 girls and 3 boys.
“I had the rich opportunity to travel with the founders of Just One Africa to Kenya and observed first hand what they do. Their vision is clear and intentional – to help those that have great basic needs: clean water through water filters, medical clinics, food and clothing to widows, orphans, and families in the slums, and donations of educational supplies and musical instruments to schools to name just a few of their areas of impact! Because I know my donation truly goes for the designated need, I choose Just One Africa to be my charity of choice. I’m grateful that I can make a difference in the lives of others through this organization. I’m truly impressed with the “heart” of the founders and board of Just One Africa and the opportunity they afford me to be ‘just one’! “
Gratefulheart71 – a review on GreatNonProfits.org
