In March 2022, I traveled to Nakuru, Kenya — not to deliver answers, but to listen. To witness. I stood alongside a community that was already working to build a more just and sustainable future for its children and families. I found a community that did not need saving. It was a community full of leaders, innovators, and neighbors who had been caring for one another long before I arrived. They will continue long after.
PREPARATION:
The first step was learning. I researched the landscape of community-based support for children in Kenya and found my way to Mbogo’s Quality Farm Products—a local business in Nakuru quietly doing something extraordinary. Every morning, they prepare and distribute breakfast to children in the community who would otherwise start their day without a meal. This was not charity from the outside. Instead, this was a Kenyan business rooted in its own community, choosing to invest in the children around it. I reached out, made a connection, and booked my flight.
THE JOURNEY TO NAKURU:
I landed in Nairobi and was met at 1am by David W., his daughter Sally, and Issa M.—three people whose generosity and warmth set the tone for everything that followed. The four-hour drive to Nakuru wound through a breathtaking landscape. We saw the silhouette of Mount Kenya; the vast open road dotted with goats and cattle; and, at one point, baboons, zebras, and antelope moving alongside us in the dark. Kenya announced itself slowly and magnificently.
Upon arriving, we were welcomed into the home of Lillian—Sally’s mother and David’s wife—who had prepared brunch: ugali and eggs scrambled with onions and tomatoes. It was a gesture of extraordinary hospitality. Brunch is not a common meal in most Kenyan homes. I did not take the honor lightly.
In the days that followed, I walked with community members through the neighborhoods of Nakuru, meeting families, observing, and beginning to understand the particular shape of what children in this community navigate. They are not passive recipients of circumstance, but young people with dreams, relationships, and daily acts of resilience. This is the Ubuntu spirit at work — the unaccompanied children of Nakuru deserve to be seen and supported.
BUILDING HEART CARES:
Over the next two weeks, conversations deepened into collaboration. Eleven community members and I joined forces to formalize what was already happening organically—mutual support, shared resources, and coordinated care. We named it Heart Cares. We registered it as a Community-Based Organization (CBO) under Kenyan law.
CBOs are a significant and deeply rooted part of Kenyan civic life. They are how communities organize around their priorities — not programs designed from the outside, but structures built from within. For example, Heart Cares now runs education support, counseling, vocational training, and food programs—all guided by the community members who know this land, these families, and these children best. Read more about what Heart Cares and Ubuntu Village are building together.
VISITING MALAIKA INITIATIVE FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITY:
One of the most meaningful visits of the trip was to the Malaika Initiative for People with Disabilities, Inc.—a public charity in Nakuru City dedicated to the full civic inclusion of people with disabilities through advocacy, education, and resource development. I had been in contact with their team by email before arriving. Nothing prepared me for walking through their door.
The office was alive. People were working, laughing, and building something together — doing it with creativity and determination in an environment where resources were limited but vision was not. The Malaika Initiative does not frame disability as a deficit. Instead, it frames people with disabilities as equal citizens whose leadership and participation make the whole community stronger. That framing is exactly right. It is the Ubuntu way.
CLOSING REFLECTION:
Kenya changed me—not because of what I witnessed of hardship, but because of what I witnessed of strength. That feeling — of belonging to a place that is vast and alive and quietly asking to be understood — is a thread that runs through writing like Kenya — a wide country, a restless hope, a meditation on identity and the home we carry in our hearts. The protagonists of this work are the community leaders, business owners, organizers, and families who open their homes and share their stories. Kenya’s cultural depth is inseparable from the living traditions its peoples carry — among them, the Maasai heritage, which has shaped identity, stewardship, and community across the region for generations. Ubuntu Village exists to stand alongside them, to resource what they are already building, and to ensure that their stories reach the people who need to hear them.
That first visit planted the seeds of an ongoing relationship with the community in Nakuru. I returned — read about my return to Kenya and what we continued to build together.
I came to listen. I left having learned.
Related Links
Community is the medicine.
The leaders of Nakuru did not wait for someone to come save them — they built what they needed. Ubuntu Village stands alongside that spirit. Your donation helps resource community-led work across Kenya, Uganda, and East Harlem.
Donate
Michele Mitchell is the Founder, President & CEO of Ubuntu Village Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with programs in Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria. A writer, advocate, and community strategist working at the intersection of ancestral wisdom, public health, and community power, Michele leads Ubuntu Village’s work to center communities as the protagonists of their own healing. She writes from the conviction that science and spirit are complementary, that healing is relational, and that community is the medicine. Read more about Michele, or connect with her on LinkedIn.
Discover more from Ubuntu Village
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.