In this powerful episode of Rooted Podcast, we sit down with Jackie Odhiambo, the Founder and Executive Director of Nyanam Widows Rising—a Kenya-based, women-led organization transforming communities by equipping widows to overcome stigma, reclaim identity, and lead with dignity.
Jackie’s story begins with three widowed women who raised her—each shaping her worldview through faith, resilience, courage, and an unshakable sense of justice. Yet as a young adult, Jackie confronted the painful contradiction between the strong widows she knew and the marginalized widows she encountered in community work.
This tension became her well moment—her spiritual turning point—leading her to see widowhood not as a social sentence but as a calling into leadership.
Since 2019, Nyanam has grown 41-fold, from serving 80 widows to more than 3,300, through a holistic model—Voices of Change—that strengthens spiritual, social, mental, and economic outcomes for widows and their children.
Jackie speaks candidly about faith, identity, trauma in leadership, public health insights, generational healing, and the long obedience of saying “yes” again and again to a mission God continues to unfold.
This conversation is tender, profound, deeply spiritual, and full of courage.
👥 About Our Guest: Jackie Odhiambo
Jackie Odhiambo is the Founder and Executive Director of Nyanam Widows Rising, a Kenyan grassroots organization equipping widows to overcome stigma and lead transformational change within their families and communities.
Under Jackie’s leadership, Nyanam has grown from 80 participants to over 3,300 widows—a 41-fold expansion in just five years. Their signature program, Voices of Change, strengthens: • Spiritual grounding • Mental and emotional wellness • Social belonging • Economic empowerment
Jackie holds a Master’s in Public Health from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and is pursuing her PhD in Public Health through a joint program with Maseno University (Kenya) and UCSF (USA). Her research explores widowhood, stigma, and health outcomes.
A woman of profound faith, justice, and integrity, Jackie believes widowhood is not an identity of loss, but a platform for leadership—a conviction shaping thousands of families across Kenya.
📲 Connect with Jackie & Nyanam Widows RisingWebsite → https://nyanam.org
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