Rooted

The Leader Collective at Blood:Water
  • 5.0 (1)
  • NON-PROFIT
  • UPDATED MONTHLY

Rooted explores the stories of the leaders we serve through the Blood:Water partnership. This is not a leadership podcast—it’s a podcast about people. It’s a space where leaders can share who they are. Each episode traces the threads that make up the totality of the stories of our lives: our origins, hopes, disappointments, unimaginable successes, and the missteps that shape us along the way. Rooted invites us into deeper understanding and common ground—revealing how lived experience forms how we show up in the world, and how we ultimately discover who we were created to be.

Episodes

  1. MAY 11

    EP 2: A Life Poured Out — The Story of Purpose - Hermella Wondimu Woldehana

    In this deeply moving episode of Rooted Podcast, we sit down with Hermella Wondimu Woldehana, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Drop of Water—one of Ethiopia’s most respected community-rooted water organizations. For nearly 15 years, Hermela has led with unwavering faith, radical generosity, and a servant-hearted commitment to ending Ethiopia’s water crisis. From her childhood in Harar—formed by a legacy of compassion, hospitality, and sacrificial giving—to her courageous decision to walk away from a successful engineering career and follow a calling that made no sense on paper, Hermela reveals the story behind her life’s mission. She shares how a chance encounter with actor Matt Damon, a divine moment of clarity, and early seasons of hardship and perseverance shaped the leader she is today. If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like to say yes to a calling bigger than yourself, Hermela’s story is a masterclass in purpose, resilience, and faith in action. Note: This episode was recorded in early 2025, since the recording, Hermella Wondimu and Elfaz Kassa now serve as Co-Executive Directors, leading Drop of Water. 💬 Stay Connected with Drop of Water: https://dropofwater.org/ Don’t miss an episode! Follow Rooted here: 🎧 Listen & Subscribe📍 YouTube →⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@BloodWaterMission⁠⁠ 📷 Instagram →⁠ https://www.instagram.com/bloodwatermission/⁠ 📘 Facebook →⁠ https://web.facebook.com/bloodwatermission?_rdc=1&_rdr#⁠ 🐦 Twitter/X →⁠ https://x.com/bloodwater⁠ 📩 Email us → BLOODWATER@BLOODWATER.ORG

    55 min

  2. APR 13

    EP 1: The Well Where Purpose Found Her: Faith, Justice, and the Making of a Leader - Jackie Odhiambo

    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 💬 Stay Connected with Blood:Water 🎧 Listen & Subscribe📍 YouTube →⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@BloodWaterMission⁠⁠ 📷 Instagram →⁠ https://www.instagram.com/bloodwatermission/⁠ 📘 Facebook →⁠ https://web.facebook.com/bloodwatermission?_rdc=1&_rdr#⁠ 🐦 Twitter/X →⁠ https://x.com/bloodwater⁠ 📩 Email us → BLOODWATER@BLOODWATER.ORG

    59 min

  3. APR 8

    Rooted: The Official Trailer

    We’ve been working on something meaningful… and it’s finally here! 🎙️ Rooted: A new Podcast from The Leader Collective at Blood:Water. The word rooted itself means: Having developed from something. Very strong. Firmly fixed. On Rooted we sit with the leaders Blood:Water serves across East and Southern Africa to hear how defining moments planted them firmly in the purpose that drives them. This is a podcast about people. About the full, unedited totality of a life: origin stories, hopes, disappointments and unimaginable victories. Because every mission starts with a person. And every person has roots.Our hope is that you, our listeners, would find common ground here and that these conversations would stir something deep in you—that they would inspire you to flourish in your purpose and lead on mission. #RootedPodcast #ChangeMakers #BloodWater #FundingTheFrontline

    2 min

  4. FEB 15

    Introducing Rooted

    Every mission starts with a person, and every person has a story. On Rooted, we sit with leaders across East and Southern Africa to hear how defining moments planted them firmly in the purpose that drives them. This is Rooted, a podcast from the Leader Collective at Blood Water.

    1 min
  • 4 Episodes

About

Rooted explores the stories of the leaders we serve through the Blood:Water partnership. This is not a leadership podcast—it’s a podcast about people. It’s a space where leaders can share who they are. Each episode traces the threads that make up the totality of the stories of our lives: our origins, hopes, disappointments, unimaginable successes, and the missteps that shape us along the way. Rooted invites us into deeper understanding and common ground—revealing how lived experience forms how we show up in the world, and how we ultimately discover who we were created to be.

Information

  • Creator
    The Leader Collective at Blood:Water
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    4
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © The Leader Collective at Blood:Water
  • Show Website
    Rooted