Kenya

Kenya has a population of over 43 million people with nearly half the population aged under 18. For Kenyan families, 26% of children do not access primary school and 60% miss out on secondary school. 26% children work to support their families and 28% of the population are illiterate.

Although the Kenyan coastline has a tropical climate, much of the country is characterised by arid lands which is problematic for the high proportion of rural families relying on subsistence farming. An accelerated cycle of drought in recent years has contributed to food insecurity. With limited access to education and vocational skills, rural families suffer very directly from crop failure.

With an increasingly young population, there is great movement from rural areas to cities upon the optimism of a better standard of living. As a result, Nairobi is home to approximately 2.5 million slum dwellers representing 60% of the Nairobi population and occupying just 6% of the land. Kibera, with 250,000 people, is the biggest slum in Africa and one of the biggest in the world. Access to basic life necessities in these slums is desperate and access to opportunities to improve lives for families is severely limited.

International Needs Kenya are working to reach and support families both in rural areas and within Kibera slum in Nairobi. Through our Street Children outreach work, we have been working in Kenya for six years and with our other projects are looking to expand our work with our local partners there. We want to help families in Kenya as they improve their quality of life and invest in their futures.