Joan’s journey as a human rights defender began in 2012 at the age of 20 while she was a first year student in medical school. A friend approached her with the idea to establish an organisation, which they did. The organisation known as Fly Sister Fly Foundation champions the realisation of the right to education for girls in Samburu by addressing the basic barriers they face.

She and her colleagues identified their key challenges and developed creative ways to address the same. A notable achievement is the incorporation of adaptable technology through the use of Solar powered radio Project to counter the communication barrier and nomadic lifestyle of the Samburu Community. The initiative aims at distributing solar powered radio sets to the families in Samburu. The radio has a memory card slot where they insert a memory card with recordings of key issues such as importance of education. It also has a torch which the children use to study at night, acts like a power bank and has a charging system for phones. In 2016, they distributed 90 radios, impacting over 400 families since they use them
communally.
Joan has faced numerous challenges, which she views as an opportunity for growth and creative thinking to come up with solutions. One of her major challenges is lack of sufficient finances to sustain the work of the organisation which she tries to mitigate through innovative ways as crowd-funding and selling merchandise.