Founded in 2001 by Rye Barcott, Salim Mohamed, and the late Tabitha Atieno Festo, CFK Africa (previously Carolina for Kibera) is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) based in the informal settlement of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya. Registered as an NGO in Kenya and a 501(c)3 in the US, CFK Africa is a pioneer of grassroots participatory development, and leads a community-based sports program, girls' empowerment centre, medical clinic, maternity centre, nutrition centre, young health and wellness centre, community-health outreach program, scholarship program, entrepreneurship and economic development initiatives, and a research-based initiative to improve educational quality in informal schools in Kibera. CFK Africa is also an affiliated entity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has an office in the university's FedEx Global Education Center.
Led by Kenyans and advised by American and Kenyan volunteers, CFK Africa's primary mission is to work with community members to improve public health, education outcomes, and economic opportunities in informal settlements in Kibera.
Philosophy
CFK Africa's philosophy is grounded in the concept of participatory development. Solutions to problems involving poverty are possible only if those affected by it drive development. Concerned outsiders can help by mobilizing communities, advising, networking, and providing resources. However, the local community possesses the knowledge and motivation necessary to solve its own problems.
Leadership
As a registered nonprofit in the U.S. and a registered NGO in Kenya, CFK Africa is led by executive director, Jeffrey Okoro, who reports to a joint board of directors composed of both Kenyan and American volunteers. CFK Africa co-founder, Rye Barcott, currently serves as the board chair. In 2020, CFK Africa convened an advisory council,[1] a diverse group of 21 international leaders, including 64th U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (in memoriam), former CDC Director Dr. Bill Roper, Isis Nyong'o Madison, a Partner at Asphalt & Ink; Co-Founder, WomenWork Kenya, Kathleen McGinn, Ph.D. a Cahners-Rabb Professor of Business Administration; Co-Unit Head, Negotiation, Organizations & Markets at Harvard Business School, Jesse Moore, the CEO and co-founder of M-KOPA, and Megan Smith, 3rd Chief Technology Officer of the United States and Co-Founder of the Malala Fund, to help the organization improve and expand its services in informal settlements.
Awards and impact
Time magazine named CFK Africa a "Hero of Global Health" in 2005[2] and ABC News named CFK Africa co-founder, Rye Barcott, Person of the Year[3] in 2006 for his work in Kibera and his service as a U.S. marine. Time for Kids featured CFK on the cover of its March 30, 2007, edition.[4] In 2004 Canadian Musician Sarah McLachlan concluded her award-winning music video "World on Fire" with footage of CFK Africa's soccer tournaments and medical clinic in Kibera. Two years later CFK Africa published LIGHTBOX: Expressions of Hope from Young Women in the Kibera Slum. This powerful book of narratives and photographs from disposable cameras gives voice to the young and courageous women of CFK Africa's Binti Pamoja (Daughters United) Center.[5] In 2007 then Senator Barack Obama visited CFK Africa's youth center and gave a landmark speech calling for ethnic unity and education in Kibera.[6] CFK Africa played a crucial role in providing emergency aid during the Kenyan post-election violence in 2008, and for its efforts the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum honored CFK Africa as its recipient of the Reflections of Hope Award in a ceremony with the former ABC World News Anchor Bob Woodruff and his wife Lee.[7]
In 2008, CFK Africa received a $1 million grant for capacity building and income generation expansion from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Jill Biden visited CFK Africa's Binti Pamoja Centre in 2010 as she sought to promote women's rights, girls' empowerment, and gender equality around the world.[8] In 2011, Barcott published It Happened on the Way to War, which juxtaposes military service and social entrepreneurship.[9] The book was chosen as required reading for freshman classes at NC State University (2012)[10] and East Carolina University (2013).[11] In 2012, Kathleen McGinn of Harvard Business School profiled CFK Africa as the topic for the school's first ever multi-media case study.[12] McGinn joined the board of directors in 2014 and later served as CFK Africa's board chair from 2017 to 2020. In 2012, CFK Africa's Sports for Development program was the focus of the award-winning documentary, Without a Fight, which explored how soccer can facilitate social change in Kibera. Susan Mueni Waita, a participant in CFK Africa's Girls' Empowerment Program, received a Queen's Young Leaders Award in 2016 for her work supporting girls and women in Kibera.[13] She founded an organization called Making a Difference (MAD) Sisters to educate girls on sexual health. In 2018, Rye Barcott delivered the commencement address at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[14]
In recent years, CFK Africa published a cookbook which celebrates culture, educates on nutrition, and supports severely malnourished children living in informal settlements. The cookbook, Karibu Mezani was produced in 2021 by CFK Africa with contributions from CFK Africa's staff, board, members, partners, and alumni. In 2021, CFK Africa produced a published a documentary, CFK Celebrates 20 Years of Service, to showcase their work in Kenya over the past 20 years. In 2022, CFK Africa partnered with MIT for the Leveraging Evidence for Action to Promote Change (LEAP) Program, designed to provide guidance on how to implement, measure, and eventually scale specific interventions to improve school attendance in informal settlements in Kenya. In 2023, CFK Africa supported the Kibera Girls Soccer Academy, the first soccer team from an informal settlement to enter the Women's Premiere League in Kenya. Additionally, in 2023, U.S. First Lady Jill Biden’s February visit to Kenya included a stop in Kibera, where she reconnected with a member of the inaugural cohort of CFK Africa’s peer educators, who she had first met in 2010 on a tour of Kibera, and stayed in touch with over the decades.
In 2022, CFK Africa launched their new name, brand, and website; CFK Africa. They launched a new strategic plan that included expanding to 24 informal settlements across 8 counties in Kenya. CFK Africa's focus on Adolescent and Youth Health lead to 10,080 youth enrolled in psychosocial support services; 3,720 girls provided with sanitary towels; 639 youth screened for health conditions including cervical cancer, diabetes, hypertension, mental health, and nutrition; and 590 youth provided with HIV/AIDS testing and counseling services. Their clinical services aiming to improve health and well-being of people living in Kibera and their access to affordable health care led to 27,805 patients serviced at the Tabitha Medical Clinic, including 11,270 new visitors; 14,134 patients receiving treatment for various health conditions, 2,638 screenings for health conditions including cervical cancer and HIV/AIDS; 101 patients enrolled in HIV treatment; and 43 patients enrolled in TB treatment. Their Maternal & Child Health (MCH) program led to 8,996 children reached with child wellness services, including immunizations, treatment for childhood illnesses, and nutrition support; 547 women provided with post-natal care, 305 safe child deliveries; and high reported rates of easy access to care, quality of care (as compared to comparable facilities), and necessity of services. The nutrition programs led to 60,000 and 30,000 deworming tablets provided in Nairobi and Machakos counties respectively; 30,344 children screened for malnutrition; 13,198 people provided information on under 5 nutrition; 803 children identified with malnutrition, 642 of which were treated at CFK Africa's health facilities and 163 referred to other facilities; 1,500 nurses, nutritionists, community health volunteers, and caregivers trained to provide quality nutrition services in the community. Lastly, their Water, Sanitation, and Hygience (WaSH) programming led to 34 hand washing stations constructed in schools and at a health facility, serviing 40,002 people; 41 schools provided with murals designed and painted by students that promote hand washing and sustainable positive hygiene behavior; 81 active health clubs in schools established and 377 WaSH champions trained to manage and promote WaSH activities; and 11 schools in the informal settlements of Kibera, Mukuru, Viwandani, and Mathare received water quality testing.[15]
CFK Africa's 2022 focus on Education and Youth Leadership Development has led to 79 scholarships for secondary school awarded by CFK Africa to students living in eight informal settlements across Kenya; 418 youth receiving life skills training, preparing them to enter the job market competitively, start their own businesses, or pursue further education; 147 youth completing digital literacy training; and 219 youth completing Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).[15]
History
The late Tabitha Atieno Festo, Founder of CFK's Tabitha Medical Clinic
CFK Africa was cofounded by Rye Barcott (then an undergraduate at UNC studying under Anthropologist Jennifer Coffman), Salim Mohamed (a community organizer) and the late Tabitha Festo (a nurse). In the summer of 2001, Barcott teamed up with Salim Mohamed who was managing the Information and Management Department of the Mathare Youth Sports Association in another informal settlement in Nairobi. Barcott also reunited with the late Tabitha Atieno Festo, a registered nurse and resident of Kibera who had established a small medical clinic from a grant of $26 that Barcott had given her the previous summer to sell vegetables.
CF0K Africa received its initial funding from hundreds of American citizens in addition to a $30,000 start-up grant from the Ford Foundation. A year later, two undergraduates from the United States, Karen Austrian and Emily Verellen, volunteered in Kibera with CFK Africa and helped young women in Kibera create CFK Africa's third program, The Binti Pamoja (Daughters United) Centre, establishing a safe space for young girls to address issues unique to them. In 2007, the United Nations recognized the Binti Pamoja Centre as one of the world's premiere programs addressing the unique challenges and needs of adolescent girls.[16]
CFK Africa opened its first 24/7 medical clinic in 2002 and expanded its health program to include home health visits and health education through Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) and Youth Peer Providers (YPPs). CFK Africa also launched its Sports for Development Program and established the first all-girls soccer team in Kibera in 2002, with the goal of bringing together male and female youth of different ethnicities to promote community cooperation, peace and conflict resolution and development through sports. In 2007, CFK Africa expanded and relocated its clinic to the center of Kibera, renaming it the Tabitha Medical Clinic in honor of the late Tabitha Festo. In its first full year providing healthcare services in partnership with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Tabitha Clinic provided healthcare services to Kibera residents through more than 35,000 patient visits, averaging about 140 visits daily. CFK Africa also introduced a continuing medical education program and capacity building training programs and hired auxiliary doctors and nurses to be "on call" for the clinic in emergencies.
To provide more holistic care for the Kibera community, CFK Africa opened the Lishe Bora Mtaani Nutrition Centre in 2013, serving malnourished children under the age of five through an eight-week feeding and vitamin supplementation program. In 2018, CFK Africa opened the new three-story Binti Pamoja Centre, housing arts, reproductive health education, and girls' empowerment activities for girls in the community. The centre also serves as CFK Africa's center of operations.. After gaining community feedback, CFK Africa expanded again in 2019, opening the Young Health and Wellness Centre to specifically serve the unique needs of youth in the community and the Tabitha Maternity Centre to serve the needs of mothers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CFK Africa partnered with the CDC and the Kenya Ministry of Health to lead coronavirus sampling and contact tracing efforts in Kibera.[17]
Currently, CFK Africa continues to run the Tabitha Maternity Home, the Tabitha Medical Clinic, the Young Health and Wellness Centre, and their CFK Africa Headquarters, located in Kibera.
A clinic is a health facility that is primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded. They typically cover the primary care needs of populations in local communities, in contrast to larger hospitals which offer more specialized treatments and admit inpatients for overnight stays.
Kibera is a division of Nairobi Area, Kenya, and neighbourhood of the city of Nairobi, 6.6 kilometres (4.1 mi) from the city centre. Kibera is the largest slum in Nairobi, and the largest urban slum in Africa. The 2009 Kenya Population and Housing Census reports Kibera's population as 170,070, contrary to previous estimates of one or two million people. Other sources suggest the total Kibera population may be 500,000 to well over 1,000,000 depending on which slums are included in defining Kibera.
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Community Support Group (CSG) is a national community-based organization working in three areas of Kenya: Kibera, Kisumu and Ugenya. CSG’s primary goal is to promote community development through pooling resources of community members.
Rye Barcott is a social entrepreneur, investor, and the author of the memoir It Happened on the Way to War. He co-founded Carolina for Kibera, Double Time Capital, and With Honor.
Hot Sun Foundation is a non-profit organization that works in Nairobi, Kenya with young people from urban slums and other marginalized communities of East Africa to train and expose their talents and potential on the world stage. Hot Sun Foundation trains youth in all aspects of filmmaking, from scriptwriting, camera, sound, pre production, budgeting, production, directing, editing, and marketing. Vision of Hot Sun Foundation: Social transformation through art and media Mission of Hot Sun Foundation: Identify and develop youth talent to tell their stories on film
Koinonia is a lay Christian community with social and humanitarian projects in Kenya, Zambia and the Nuba Mountains of Sudan.
KICOSHEP, the Kibera Integrated Community Self-Help Programme, is an NGO founded by Anne Owiti in a sparse dingy clinic within the shanty settlement of Kibera in 1991. The majority of patients were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS related ailments, revealing the impact and spread of HIV/AIDS within the Kibera community and confirming the recent discovery that Kibera slum records the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in Nairobi.
4Real is a reality TV series, whose eight episodes were broadcast on MTV Canada during the 2007–2008 season. The series' main theme was having celebrity guests visit local communities to discuss local and global challenges, for example, having Joaquin Phoenix visit the Brazilian rainforest to discuss contemporary challenges with a local chieftain. The series was produced by Direct Current Media.
Korogocho is one of the largest slum neighbourhoods of Nairobi, Kenya. Home to 150,000 to 200,000 people pressed into 1.5 square kilometres, northeast of the city centre, Korogocho was founded as a shanty town on the then outskirts of the city.
Mukuru Kwa Njenga is a slum in the Mukuru slums of Nairobi. Mukuru kwa Njenga is among other villages in Mukuru namely; Mukuru kwa Reuben, Mukuru kwa Njenga, Sinai, Paradise, Jamaica, Kingstone, Mariguini, Fuata Nyayo and Kayaba. The population exceeds 100,000.
The Primary Health Care and Resource Center (PHCRC) is in the rural village of Chapagaun, Lalitpur in Nepal. Chapagaun is in the wider Kathmandu Valley. The health centre was first established in 1972 as a Maternal and Child Health (MCH) clinic by the United Mission to Nepal. It is notable for its international volunteer programme and its micro-insurance service which reduces the cost of health care for those with the insurance. This is an important service in a country where more than 30% of the population are below the poverty line of US$12 per month and lack basic amenities such as primary health care.
Renee Botta is on the faculty of the Department of Media, Film & Journalism Studies at the University of Denver where she has conducted research on the relationship between media use and eating disorders among adolescents from diverse populations. She earned a Ph.D. in 1998 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At the University of Denver she teaches courses in health communication, mass communication & public relations in many different graduate and undergraduate courses. Her main focus of work away from the University has been about increasing sanitation and clean water in slums such as Kibera.
The Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) is an academic medical partnership between leading North American academic health centers, primarily led by the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the Moi University School of Medicine based in Eldoret, Kenya. It is the first integrated healthcare model to be established in Africa, encompassing both medical treatment and pharmaceutical provisions. The program aims to deliver comprehensive HIV care services and is guided by a three-fold mission: providing care, conducting research, and offering training opportunities. Currently, AMPATH serves a population of 3.5 million individuals, operating over 60 clinics in urban and rural areas of Western Kenya.
Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) is a grassroots movement based in Nairobi, Kenya in urban slums providing services, community advocacy platforms, and education and leadership development for women and girls. SHOFCO serves more than 350,000 urban slum dwellers in 10 slums across three cities in Kenya.
The Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) is an international, faith-based NGO, providing long-term, co-operative medical and development aid to communities affected by poverty and healthcare issues. It was established in 1912 and officially registered in 1928. CMMB is headquartered in New York City, USA, and currently has country offices in Haiti, Kenya, Peru, South Sudan, and Zambia.
Sarafu-Credit is a community currency system operated in Kenya. It is used by five different communities, all located in informal settlements or slum areas, including small businesses and schools.
Stellah Wairimu Bosire, is a Kenyan physician, corporate executive, human rights activist and author, a former co-executive director of Uhai Eashri and previously served as the chief executive officer of Kenya Medical Association and as the vice-chair of the HIV and AIDS Tribunal of Kenya.
Viwandani is an informal settlement in the city of Nairobi, Kenya. It is an electoral ward within the Makadara Constituency of Nairobi County. It borders on the Nairobi Industrial Area. The name "Viwandani" means "at the industrial zone" in Kiswahili. There are thirteen "villages" within the settlement: Jamaica, Kingstone, Lunga Lunga Centre, Lunga Lunga Donholm, Milimani, Paradise A, B, and C, Riverside, Sinai, Sinali Reli, Tetrapak, and Uchumi.
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