About Us

Joy Keepers Lifeline (JKL) is a community-based, non-political, non-partisan, and non-profit humanitarian and development organization rooted in West Pokot County, Kenya. JKL exists to restore dignity, offer hope, and create pathways to opportunity for children, youth, women, and families facing hardship and exclusion. JKL bridges emergency relief and long-term development, addressing both the urgent needs of vulnerable households and the deeper, structural drivers of poverty and vulnerability in the communities it serves. Its work is anchored in service, human dignity, community partnership, and the conviction that lasting transformation requires both compassionate care and genuine empowerment.

The Challenges

Across West Pokot, many households continue to face challenges linked to poverty, youth unemployment, climate shocks, limited access to opportunities, psychosocial stress, and weak protection systems. Young people often struggle to access meaningful employment and livelihood opportunities. Climate-related pressures continue to affect pastoralist and agro-pastoralist livelihoods. Vulnerable children and families frequently face risks without adequate support systems. These realities create barriers to stability and development.

Why West Pokot

West Pokot is classified as an Arid and Semi-Arid Land (ASAL) county and consistently ranks among Kenya's most marginalized regions. It is home to roughly 621,000 people, nearly half of them under age 15, and carries a poverty rate of about 74%, among the highest in the country. Communities here face compounding, interlinked pressures: recurrent drought and land degradation that erode household incomes; low school enrolment and transition rates; some of the country's highest recorded rates of child marriage and FGM; and mental health infrastructure that remains critically thin. These realities are not isolated, when rains fail and livestock die, children are pulled from school, malnutrition rises, and early marriage becomes a coping strategy for cash-strapped households. JKL was founded to respond to this reality directly, not through short-term, disconnected relief, but through integrated programming that links household livelihoods, environmental restoration, child protection, education, and psychosocial wellbeing.

Support Economic empowerment in West Pokot

Our Story

JKL works through community-led approaches that strengthen local systems and capacities.

Our work focuses on:

Protection and social safeguarding
Youth livelihoods and economic empowerment
Psychosocial wellbeing and community healing
Community resilience and adaptive systems
Data, learning, and accountability
Innovation and digital inclusion
Institutional strengthening and sustainability

Joy Keeper Lifeline was established in response to the realities facing communities across West Pokot County.While communities have demonstrated remarkable resilience over generations, many continue to face challenges associated with poverty, unemployment, climate vulnerability, social risks, and limited access to opportunities.JKL emerged from the belief that resilience alone is not enough.For communities to thrive, resilience must be supported by strong systems that protect vulnerable people, create economic opportunities, strengthen wellbeing, and build pathways toward sustainable development.Today, JKL serves as a community-focused organization dedicated to strengthening those systems and supporting locally driven solutions.

Communities that are safe, resilient, economically empowered, and capable of shaping their own sustainable future.

To strengthen community-led systems that improve protection, livelihoods, psychosocial wellbeing, and resilience among vulnerable populations in West Pokot County.