CFK HISTORY

CFK was founded by Rye Barcott (then an undergraduate at UNC) to help prevent ethnic and religious violence in Kibera through a community-based sports program. In the summer of 2001, Barcott teamed up with Salim Mohamed (in photo on right) who was managing the Information and Management Department of the Mathare Youth Sports Association in another informal settlement in Nairobi. Barcott also reunited with the late Tabitha Atieno Festo, a registered nurse and resident of Kibera who had established a small medical clinic from a grant of $26 that Barcott had given her the previous summer to sell vegetables. CFK received its initial funding in the form of a $30,000 start-up grant from the Ford Foundation. A year later, two undergraduates from the United States, Karen Austrian and Emily Verellen, volunteered in Kibera with CFK and helped young women in Kibera create CFK’s third program, The Binti Pamoja (Daughters United) Center, establishing a safe space for young girls to address issues unique to them. Youth in Kibera subsequently developed the Taka ni Pato (Trash is Cash) and Base of the Pyramid programs in 2005 in order to address the dearth of employment opportunities in Kibera.

CFK, Inc. is the patron of all four CFK-Kenya programs: the Youth Sports Program, Tabitha Clinic, Taka ni Pato, and the Binti Pamoja Center. Although there is a high degree of collaboration, each program is operationally and financially autonomous. Most importantly, each program is led by residents of Kibera. Oversight and governing is provided by an executive committee composed of leading members of CFK and a member of the CFK-Kenya Board of Trustees.