STOP THE HUNGER
The Malaika Foundation was founded in 2021 almost by chance when Mauro, walking through the streets of the capital, met some children who asked him for food. Mauro thus discovered an incredible reality: over 60,000 children in Nairobi live without shelter, food, and family.
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It was at that moment that the Malaika Foundation was born, a non-profit organization that distributes meals to nearly 200 children every Sunday, also providing medical and psychological assistance, shoes, and clothing. Whenever possible, the organization strives to reunite the children with their families.
Our Mission
More children
End drug use
Clothes
Malaika is now providing food, once a week, for about 200 children. Our main goal is to increase these numbers, and be able to give meals at least 2 times a week for many more children.
Providing food for these children restores their strength. Restoring their strength restores their hope. Restoring their hope helps them to take better care of themselves. We are convinced that this is the right way to get these children away from drugs.
Street children lack proper clothing to wear. They depend on used clothing that they find among the garbage.
Back home
Health
Most of the children come from outside the city and end up on the streets of Nairobi looking for ways to make money, so that they can send home financial support to their families. But, when they realize that it is almost impossible for them to earn anything, they become afraid of returning home empty-handed and become homeless on the streets. One of our biggest goals at Malaika is to reunite these children with their families, and then try to support the family unit.
Food is their most important need, but the children often need primary medical care. For the street children, it is almost impossible to receive help from public health centers and hospitals. These public facilities are usually overcrowded with a large number of community-based indigent patients. Also, the street children are financially unable to afford health services and buy medicines on their own.
Education
Whenever we bring food to these children, we try to spend as much time with them as possible. This is a great time to listen and comfort them. We always try to understand what they need and what their dreams are. They all have the same dream: to find their family and go to school. Malaika will do everything we can to make these dreams come true!
about
MALAIKA
FOUNDATION
There are between 250,000-300,000 children living and working on the streets across Kenya, with more than 60,000 of them in the capital city of Nairobi. These children are without shelter and without assurance of having food every day.
Their environment is fraught with the sustained dangers of: fear, harassment, violence among themselves and towards others, drug use and drug trafficking, sexual exploitation with the high risk of contracting STD's and HIV/AIDS, starvation, and poor hygienic and sanitation conditions.
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On top of all this, these children (particularly in Nairobi) are substance abusers. Sniffing glue is their escape from poverty, homelessness, violence, and abuse on the streets. Sniffing glue helps them to suppress their hunger, because glue is cheaper than food. Some children say that they use glue and other drugs to heighten their senses. To alert them of possible violence, help them sleep during the cold nights, or to numb their physical or emotional pain.
Many of the children claim that their parents are either deceased or have abandoned them. The street, then, is their only chance to earn money and search for food.
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*statistics from Nairobi’s Street Children: Hope for Kenya’s future generation.
WATCH THE VIDEO :
Meet The Team.
Mauro De Bettio
FOUNDER
Mauro is a travel and documentary photographer born and raised in a little village in the Italian Alps, now based in Barcelona. Mauro explores vanishing cultures, ancient traditions and contemporary culture, always retaining the human element, spending his life working on projects regarding social and human rights issues.
This curiosity for such different cultures and ways of living led him to the country’s most hidden corners to capture the emotion of several individuals and their unique histories. People of distinct cultures, characters and dogmas, who have opened a window on their stories, letting emotions, trauma, suffering and a perpetual light of life and joy in their eyes shine through.
During his last trip to Kenya he got closer and closer to the street children of Nairobi. He realized soon that these souls were in extreme need of help and decided to give birth to what is today called “Malaika foundation”.
Sabbath
Sabbath is from Kenya, and is the fourth child in a family of six children. She grew up in a small remote village outside Nairobi. Having been born in poverty, her childhood wasn't easy and her life was a roller coaster of problems. She couldn't afford basic needs such as food, clothes, and school fees. Just having one meal a day was a big issue.
She worked as a casual laborer in maize plantations from age 9 just to put food on the table. The hunger experience was real.
Her life and personal experience are her source of inspiration.
To be part of the wonderful and selfless Malaika Foundation team, who are working tirelessly to make sure that the kid's society decided to forget have a decent meal, clothing, and medical attention, has made Sabbath’s dream a reality. It has given her a platform to give a hand to those who need it most, and she will always be thankful for that.
Katherine Taylor
Katherine Taylor was born and raised in Hawai'i.
Although she grew up on an island, as a young girl Katherine allowed her heart to cross oceans as she prayed every night before bed for God to "bless the entire world."
Katherine embodies her childhood prayer and invites others to join her by reaching out across the street and worldwide through an international non-profit she founded called I Am Them.
I Am Them means "we are each other" and exists to heal the world by seeing ourselves in the other.
I Am Them identifies local grassroots organizations, like Malaika Foundation, and empowers them to bless their communities and go after those benefiting from their suffering. They are both philanthropists and activists.
Kate would love to have you join us in loving everybody everywhere always.
Salome
Salome was born and raised in a small village in Tanzania. After losing her parents at a young age, she had no one to care for her, leading her to marry at just 14. Now, she is a single mother of five children.
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As a single mother, Salome works tirelessly to provide for her children, who rely solely on her. Without formal employment or a stable income, she takes on small jobs such as washing clothes and cooking in local food shops.
Since joining the Malaika Foundation as a cook, she has excelled in preparing meals for the children there. Her dedication and hard work have paid off, allowing her to save enough money to buy a small restaurant.
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Salome is known for her kindness, diligence, and passion for her work. She is patient, tolerant, and has a heart of gold.
our PARTNERS.
The contributions from our partners, together with the help of our donors, is extremely important for us to achieve our daily goals. Thank you!
WHERE
WE ARE
We are located in the lively, vibrant, and culturally rich city of Nairobi, Kenya.