Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA)

Welcome to Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) - Kenya

The Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) Kenya is a women and youth membership based, non-governmental development organization founded in 1912 committed to the following core values; Accountability; Integrity; Diversity and inclusion; Spirit of Volunteerism; Concerns for humanity; and Professionalism.

YWCA was established in Kenya in 1912, making it the oldest women’s national body in Kenya. It is affiliated to the World YWCA headquartered in Geneva and its main purpose is to develop the collective power of girls and women in Kenya to achieve social, economic, political and cultural “emancipation”.

YWCA Kenya is headquartered in Nairobi and has seven branches in Mombasa, Tana River, Meru, Nairobi, Kisumu, Siaya and Kisii counties in Kenya that provide service coverage and outreach for 21 out of the 47 counties in Kenya.

YWCA is built on a strong Christian foundation, whose emphasis is integrated in all its programming.

The YWCA recognizes the need to anchor all development programme and operations on a predetermined set of principles and values and implements programme guided by its Vision and Mission.

Election Related Gender Based Violence

In a just released report by FIDA Kenya, at least 745 women aspirants as well as their supporters were subjected to election related sexual gender based violence during the primaries. In 5 days, Kenyans head to the polls, so this focus could not be timelier.

Despite a progressive new Constitution and strengthened institutions an...

Capacity Building on Social Accountability Training-YW4A

A capacity building and social accountability training was conducted on 20th and 22nd April 2022 April in Nairobi facilitated by The Institute for Social Accountability (TISA). The WROs and FBOs went through a training designed to empower them with the skills and tools to undertake social accountability as an effective approach to hold governmen...

Networking, Partnership and Coalition Building Workshop –YW4A

YWCA Kenya, Young women, WROs and FBOs participated in a workshop on partnership, networking and coalition-building on 18 - 20 May 2022, in Nairobi, Kenya. This convening was aimed at facilitating access to advocacy structures by including WROs, FBOs and targeted young women leaders in the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) plat...

CAMPAIGN DRIVE FOR THE DONATION OF TEXTBOOKS

YWCA Mombasa is calling for the donation of textbooks, exercise books and stationery for the children at the Likoni Children's Remand. A meeting held with the officer in charge at the remand centre brought to light a couple of challenges, outlined below:

1. Lack of access to educational services, mean...

International Women's Day 2022 #BreakTheBias

International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. Marked annually on March 8th IWD is a day celebrate women's achievements and raise awareness about women’s equality. This year’s theme is #BreakTheBias which highlights the importance of c...

The Convention on the Status of Women #CSW66

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global intergovernmental body established in 1964 exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. The sixty-sixth session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place from 14 to 25 March 2022. .

In support of this initi...

Membership Day

To observe our common membership and achievements , we commemorated membership day by inviting a few members for a breakfast meeting .Former leaders of the branch were invited to share with the members and current leaders their experiences as members and leaders of YWCA movement.

Enrolment was done to new members and gifts presented to...

Jijenge Business Challenge

To counter violent extremism, promote climate change, and enhance the capacity of the saving and investments groups through training, YWCA Kenya launched the Jijenge Business challenge initiative. This innovative approach was implemented in three regions, Mombasa, Nairobi and Kisumu. The goal of the initiative was to support the economic empower...

World Cleanup Day 2021

World Cleanup Day is an annual global social action program aimed at combating the global solid waste problem. To commemorate world cleanup day, and to push for the vision of a waste-free world YWCA HQ and branches took part in the cleaning up of litter within the community & the surrounding areas. The clean-up activity formed part of their ...

International Day of The Girl Child 2021

The international day of the girl child is a global holiday that celebrates the importance, power and potential of girls around the world, and focuses attention on the particular problems they face. This year’s theme was “Digital generation. Our generation” which focuses on bridging the digital divide.

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Week Without Violence 2021

It’s the year 2021 and Gender based violence is only getting worse. It continues to be one of the biggest issue impacting the lives of women, and has only worsened due to Covid-19.

For 25 years, YWCA’s from all over the world have taken part in the #WeekWithoutViolence campaign as a medium to host events, share storie...

Waste Recycling Stakeholders Meeting in Likoni

The activity, held on 31st Aug, was organized by Hand in Hand in partnership with YWCA Msa and it brought together representatives from the national government in Likoni, County government department of Environment, solid waste management and Energy, County administration ( Sub-County Administr...

WORLD YWCA DAY 2021: A CELBERATION OF YWCA LEADERS

Every year, YWCA’s around the world celebrate our common membership and achievements. This year we celebrated under the theme: A Celebration of YWCA leaders. For 160 years, YWCA leaders and pioneers have taken action in communities to make human rights a reality. This year, we celebrated the individual leaders that make up our powerful and...

Earth Day

Earth Day is an annual event held to show support for the protection of the environment and our planet. Typically, Earth Day is assigned a different theme or area of focus each year; this year’s theme was “Restore Our Earth.” With social distancing still in place for many of us this April, Earth Day celebration...

SRHR Training In Mombasa

YWCA Kenya conducted a training in Mombasa on 17th March, to create awareness on SRH policies and guidelines in order to improve the quality of life and well-being of young people as well as to strengthen capacity of the champions in life skill based SRHR, SDGs, Mental health and online and offline advocacy. The objectives of the trai...

Kenya’s High Court Upholds Ban on FGM

On March 17, 2021, Kenya’s high court upheld laws criminalizing Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). This will give a much needed boost to the fight to end the widely condemned practice, a step forward in our efforts to #EndFGM

According to the UN, one in five Kenyan women and girls aged between 15 and 49 have undergone FGM. In...

Walk & Talk Event to commemorate International Women’s Day

More than a 100 young men and women from all walks of life took part in a 2.5km walk to commemorate International Women’s Day. The event was held in Embakasi central on Monday 8th March. This year’s theme was “Choose to Challenge” calling on individuals to show their commitment to choose to challenge inequality, cal...

Strengthening Youth Resilience to VE Interfaith Dialogue in Nairobi

YWCA Kenya, in partnership with the National Council Churches of Kenya (NCCK) held a county interfaith dialogue on March 12th, at Ufungamano House. The meeting was held to strengthen youth resilience to violent extremism in the religious sector.

The interfaith dialogue aimed at creating a deliberate change of mind set and narrative tha...

YW4A Country Inception Meeting

YW4A is a five-year program financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Netherlands. The program will be implemented through a consortium in the countries of Kenya, Egypt, South Sudan and Palestine. The program seeks to narrowly address interventions related to Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV) and Intimate Partner Violence (IPV).&...

Interfaith Dialogue On Emerging Narratives in Kisumu

On March 3rd, The Inter-Faith Dialogues in Kisumu brought together Religious leaders and institutions, CSOs working on peace and security, YWCA Inter-Faith working group committee members NCCK youth mediators and catalysts, and the county government representatives from the Counties. The dialogue was well attended with diverse participation of&n...

World NGO Day

World NGO day, celebrated on 27th February, is a day that acknowledges the efforts of all NGO’s around the world that work hard to address social issues and to build a better world. YWCA Kenya joined the world in commemorating the day, which is celebrated in more than 89 countries. We took it as an opportunity to reflect, and look ba...

International Day of Zero Tolerance to FGM

FGM is a harmful cultural practice & a human rights violation that impedes on the rights of women and girls including sexual and reproductive health and exposes them to serious health, psychological, physical, social effects

YWCA Kenya joined the rest of the world in commemorating the International Day of Zero Tolera...

Local Conference of the Youth (LCOY)

The Local Conference of the Youth was held on 4-5 February. The meeting was organized by YWCA & African Youth Initiative on Climate Change (AYIOC) with the core objective of:

Providing a space for young people to showcase various clean energy technologies
Informing the youth on best practices of r...

World Wetlands Day

World Wetlands Day (WWD) is a global event that takes place every year to raise global awareness on the importance of wetlands for people and the world. This year’s theme Wetlands & Water shone a spotlight on wetlands as a source of freshwater. To mark the day, YWCA Kenya hosted an online event to create awareness on the importan...

Education for girls

Social and economic empowerment of women and girls

Advocacy for women and girl’s rights

Welcome to Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) - Kenya

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