Every day young people face challenges of poverty and limited income for their families. Mathare Foundation is working round the clock to change their situation. We are a charitable organization with a special focus on changing the lives of children,youth and women in Mathare slums,Nairobi,Kenya.
Mathare is a settlement of roughly 500,000 people where the vast majority of the population lives under the poverty index, in houses of mud and corrugated iron sheet. Mathare is the oldest slum in Nairobi and lacks basic services like sanitation, clean water, electricity, and passable roads. As in many impoverished areas, children and youth from Mathare are at incredible risk for unplanned pregnancies, involvement in drugs and alcohol, crime, prostitution, and gangs.
We have provided skills, education and income generating opportunities to 6,000 young people in sports,photography. film production, performing arts. We don’t want to treat the symptoms, we want to find lasting solutions to inequity and poverty that exist in our society. Every move we make, we always think of the young people that we support. We are always looking for individuals who share the same vision and aspiration with us. Building a better and a just world is what we strive to do.
Every young person’s life matters to us. Regardless of their social background. What are you waiting for? This is the right time. We are leaving no one behind. Join us to make the world a better place.
2024:Kicking It For Her
Kicking It For Her is a project of the Mathare Foundation that focuses on menstrual health management (MHM) and education among 600 young people aged 12 years to 22 from Mathare slums ( 70 % are adolescent girls and women whereas 30% are adolescent boys and men) through sports. Poor Menstrual Health Management among adolescent girls and women has become a thorn in the flesh especially among girls and women who come from marginalized communities such as Mathare slums. It is very unfortunate that adolescent girls and women lack access to reusable sanitary products, information and knowledge on how to use the sanitary products and other aspects of menstrual hygiene.
2021-2022: Breaking Gender Barriers-French Embassy in Nairobi
Breaking Gender barriers is a project that focuses on female leadership, female inclusion and developing female role models through use of sports. We actually developed different activities such as mentorship, leadership and technical workshops around the girls and women football league that we managed.
2019: Waters and Sanitation for All- UNICEF
Mathare Foundation was commissioned by UNICEF to implement a project on Water and Sanitation for all in 2021 by UNICEF.
2019: Countless Moves -Resolution Project
Countless is a life skills through dance project among 20 girls from Mathare slums aged between 11 to 15 years old. The project was born so as to counter issues such as early marriages and pregnancies among girls in Mathare slums.
2018-2019-Social Audit Project-US Embassy in Nairobi
This a social audit project that was conducted in 5 constituencies in Kenya namely, Mathare, Ruaraka, Kibra, Machakos and Kamukunji. The aim of this project was to check on the expenditure of the Constituency Development Fund in the stated constituency within the period of 2013-2017.
2016: Raising Voices- French Embassy in Nairobi
Raising is a photography project among 25 young people that aimed at combating youth radicalization in Mathare slums and its environs. Eastleigh which is a neighboring Mathare slums is notoriously known for being a recruitment based for Al-Shabab.
To use arts, media and sports among young people and women as a tool of realizing sustainable development goals.
Ending Poverty.
