Kenya
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Photo: Joy Portella/Mercy Corps
Our strategy
Work with youth to address the root of conflict and empower them to champion peace. Help families survive the drought and hunger crisis that hit the Horn of Africa, while building their ability to cope with future challenges.
The context
The underlying causes of Kenya’s 2007 post-election crisis remain. These include competition over land, deep poverty, widespread unemployment, youth alienation, and political manipulation of grievances. Millions of families are also still recovering from the region’s worst drought in 60 years, which began in 2011.
Our work
- Children & Youth: Connecting young people through new mobile technologies to pursue community development, new economic opportunities, and a peaceful political process
- Conflict & Governance: Strengthening local, district, and provincial structures to promote sustainable peace and reconciliation
- Emergency response: Providing clean water and access to food for drought-affected families
- Agriculture & Food: Helping affected populations rebuild their assets including livestock
All stories about Kenya
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Kenya: A movement for peace March 1, 2013
Kenya's youth are working to ensure that peace prevails during Monday's national vote, the first since post-election violence swept the country in 2007. Read their stories.
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Kenya: Betting on peace as high-stakes elections approach January 31, 2013
Mercy Corps' CEO visits Yes Youth Can and sees the future of Kenya in the young people working for peace in their country.
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Kenya: Using sports to ignite global youth potential August 10, 2012
After being shot in the chest with an arrow, David was forced to wait nearly two weeks for treatment. Lack of medical resources wasn't the problem — even though an ambulance took David almost immediately to the hospital, members of an opposing tribe refused to operate on him.
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Kenya: Choosing opportunity over violence July 30, 2012
Earlier this summer I spent three weeks in Kenya with Mercy Corps colleagues who are implementing an ambitious programme called “Yes Youth Can!” (YYC).
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Kenya: Young people shape their economic future July 30, 2012
Young people in Kenya face enormous hurdles. Today, the youth unemployment rate is an alarming 65% and growing. Suffering with few job prospects and a slow economy, many young people have been lured into violence fueled by political and tribal conflict.
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Kenya: Planting tea and cultivating positive change April 30, 2012
I’m crouched inside a tea nursery high up in the Central Rift Valley of Kenya, and George Ngethe is patiently explaining to me how tea is produced.
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Kenya: Kids in Kenya April 17, 2012
Pictured are school children from the community of Kenyanjeri, which participates in our Yes Youth Can! programme.
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Kenya: "Yes Youth Can" gears up to train young entrepreneurs February 16, 2012
Charles Kosgei is a highly skilled carpenter from the village of Soba in the Rift Valley, Kenya. Having just learned about Mercy Corps' "Yes Youth Can!" programme, he says he's excited by the opportunity to have two or three youth trainees join him in a project.
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Kenya: Life-changing latrines make women like Muriya safer February 3, 2012
Muriya Mohamed and her four children — Bishara, Gabey, Nuh and Issak — proudly showed me the new latrine in their community.
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Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia: Horn of Africa crisis update January 26, 2012
Mercy Corps teams in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia have already helped more than 1.5 million people caught in the grip of drought and hunger. But six months after this emergency first hit international headlines, there’s still much more to do.