OUR HISTORY

Kwacha Afrika is an organization that was founded by a group of young volunteers in the year 2000, who wanted to explore theatre as a tool for offering educative messages to the community on issues of Adolescence, Reproductive Health, and the negative impact of HIV and AIDS.

It uses Participatory Educational Theatre (PET) as the main approach to disseminating its messages. Kwacha Afrika is an indigenous coastal phrase that means ‘Arise Afrika.’ Over the years, Kwacha Afrika has grown from a purely theatre-oriented organization to become a leading youth organization, which works across the entire Coastal region of Kenya.

Recently Kwacha Afrika has been able to refine its thematic areas and approach in working towards achieving enhanced community-led approaches in issues of development and addressing youth matters in the Coastal region and specifically Mombasa County.

Kwacha Afrika’s thematic/program areas include :

1. Talent Identification and Development
2. Health, Gender, Differently Abled Persons and other Vulnerable Groups
3. Entrepreneurship and Small Businesses
   Sustainability Programme.
4. Governance and Access to Justice.
5. Environment and Climate Change Mitigation.
6. Peace and Security

Some of the many successes that Kwacha Afrika has achieved since it was founded include:

• A strong and reliable drama group, which has won many awards and performed for the Chief Justice and other senior figures
• Developed a community resource center with information on Health, Environment, and a wide range of other topics
•  Development of its own Income Generating Activities, including the hiring of chairs, tents, P.A. equipment, hall, and provisions of services, such as drama productions, facilitation, and computer classes
• Successful peer education programs in schools throughout Mombasa County
•  Implementation of a range of projects, most recently Imarisha Vijana project with aim of empowering 800 youths in Kisauni and Nyali sub-counties respectively in career and business skills, Youth Empowerment Programme (YEP) with more than 300 youth throughout Mombasa County, and the Kenya Transition Initiative (KTI) focusing on Good Governance & Peace-building with more than 1,500 youth in Mombasa and Kilifi counties.