KDCCE | Guide To Good

Save to Favorites

Kibera Day Care Center for the Elderly

KDCCE is a small, community-run initiative serving elders in Kibera, a low-income neighborhood in Nairobi, Kenya. Through shared meals and home visits, it helps residents over 60 living in poverty stay healthy, supported, and never forgotten. All programs are volunteer-led—by elders, for elders.

Challenge

In Kibera, growing older often means growing invisible.

This densely populated area of Kenya is one of the largest informal settlements in the world. Most residents live in poverty, and public services are limited or unreliable. While many organizations in Kibera focus on children or working-age adults, older people are rarely included in programs—and are often left to fend for themselves.

Over 10,000 Kibera residents are elders. Many live alone, without family nearby. Some are bedridden or too weak to leave home. Others spend their days searching for food or simply waiting for someone to check in. With no regular access to healthcare, therapy, or social support, aging in Kibera can mean extreme loneliness, declining health, and a slow disappearance from community life.

Solution

KDCCE is led by Kibera native Yasmin Aboyo, and serves elders in Kibera older than 60 who cannot afford to meet their basic food, housing, or healthcare needs. Most KDCCE participants live off of $15 USD or less in monthly income.

Every Tuesday, KDCCE volunteers prepare and serve nutritious community meals at the center—feeding between 50 and 100 older adults and offering a safe, social space to gather.

For elders who are homebound: trained volunteers conduct home visits, bringing medication, therapy, emotional care, and help navigating local healthcare systems. With any additional resources, KDCCE runs additional activities for elders like handicrafts skills training and literacy classes.

It’s a simple, deeply human model: show up, offer care, and keep elders connected to food, health, and one another.

Full-time team

2

Volunteers

5

Website

Founded in

1989

Annual budget

$5,000 (2025)

Sites in

Kibera, Kenya

Last update: 2025

Impact

Each week, KDCCE:

Serves nutritious meals to 50-100 elders at the center. For many elders, this is their only reliable nutritious meal all week.
Conducts home visits to 4 homebound elders.
Offers enrichment activities to 25-35 elders: literacy classes, know-your-rights sessions, skills trainings, group exercise and more.

Together these efforts ease hunger, improve health, reduce isolation, and bring a sense of dignity and connection back into elders’ lives.

Why it matters

Older people living in extreme poverty rarely receive the care they need; KDCCE helps to fill that gap. While the organization occasionally receives modest financial support from international partners like HelpAge International and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), most years it operates entirely through local volunteers and small community donations.

Today, KDCCE reaches only a small fraction of the 10,000+ elders in Kibera who need food, care, and connection. With more funding, the organization could expand its reach—bringing nourishment, dignity, and companionship to many more of the elders who have been left behind.

Leadership

Yasmin Aboyo, CEO

Yasmin Aboyo was born and raised in Kibera and has led the Kibera Day Care Center for the Elderly (KDCCE) for over 20 years. After graduating from Graffins College, she worked with small businesses in Nairobi and volunteered with the Kibera Women's Network, where she met KDCCE founder Agnes Karuki. Agnes became a close mentor, and recruited Yasmin to assist her at KDCCE in 2002. Yasmin quickly found deep purpose in caring for elders—drawn in by their wisdom, warmth, and stories.

Today, Yasmin finds inspiration and energy from serving her community in Kibera. She also represents this community in larger advocacy efforts in Nairobi, working to increase safety, speak against sexual and gender-based violence, and promote visibility for Kibera's and Kibera elders' challenges.

Serving elders since 1988

Founded in 1988 by Agnes Karuki, the Kibera Day Care Center for the Elderly (KDCCE) was established to address the neglect of older adults in Kibera. Starting with just 10 elders, the center provided meals and a space for social interaction. In 1989, local expat well-wishers donated enough to cover the costs for KDCCE to incorporate as a nonprofit in Kenya.

Over the years, KDCCE expanded its services to include home visits, and partnered with international organizations like HelpAge International to provide reliable, essential services to elders in Kibera.

The 2007–2008 post-election violence in Kenya reduced the amount of funding available for nonprofits like KDCCE, leading KDCCE to reduce the feeding program's services from 3 days to 1 day per week. Despite these hurdles, KDCCE has remained a steadfast presence in the community, continuing to serve elders with dedication and compassion.

A home visit to a KDCCE participant in 2025.

Photograph by Jeremy Onyango, OSDC

Agnes Karuki, Founder

Agnes Karuki was a beloved community leader who dedicated her life to serving the underserved. Originally from Murang’a County, she made Kibera her home and the heart of her life's work. While working with the Kenya Water for Health Organization (KWAHO)—a nonprofit focused on water, sanitation, and hygiene programs for marginalized communities—Agnes noticed how often older people in Kibera were being overlooked by existing services.

Moved by this realization, in 1988 Agnes began gathering a small group of elders for shared meals and companionship. The following year, with support from a Spanish couple who resonated with her mission, she officially registered the Kibera Day Care Center for the Elderly (KDCCE) as a nonprofit. Under Agnes's leadership, KDCCE grew from serving just 10 elders to becoming a trusted local hub for elders' needs.

Agnes led KDCCE until her passing in June 2024. Her legacy is one of selflessness, community-centric leadership, and an unwavering belief that all elders deserve dignity and care.

“As we honour Agnes Kariuki, we celebrate her life and the indelible mark she has left on her community...Her work has transformed the lives of many, and her legacy will continue to inspire and drive positive change. We are proud to have partnered with KDCCE and will continue to uphold Agnes’s mission of creating a world where every older person leads a dignified, healthy, and secure life.Rest in peace, Agnes Kariuki. Your spirit and dedication will live on in the hearts and lives of all those you have touched.”

Carole Osero Ageng’o

Regional Representative for Africa

HelpAge International

Population estimate

Estimates of Kibera’s population vary widely, from 170,000 to over 1 million, due to its informal status. Most recent, credible sources suggest a mid-range estimate of around 250,000 residents. According to Kenya’s 2019 national census, about 4.4% of the population is age 60 or older. While this percentage may be slightly lower in Kibera due to shorter life expectancy, KDCCE’s active service to elders suggests the national figure is still a useful baseline. Applying it to Kibera’s estimated population yields approximately 11,000 elders living in the settlement (250,000 × 4.4%).

Kibera also experiences extremely high levels of poverty. Multiple studies indicate that over 75% of residents live below the poverty line. Among elders—many of whom lack formal employment, retirement income, or family support—poverty is even more widespread. Assuming that about 85% of Kibera’s elders live in poverty, we estimate that roughly 9,000 to 10,000 older adults are aging in severe financial insecurity.

Sources:

2019 Kenya Census
"The Right to Food Project" by the African Population and Health Research Center
Chaffinch UK’s Kibera overview

Verification

As a small local community initiative operated by volunteers, KDCCE is a registered nonprofit in Kenya but does not have sufficient documentation to undergo rigorous due diligence (beyond what its partners HelpAge International and the American Association of Retired Persons have conducted.)

Guide to Good team members visited KDCCE twice to observe programming, examine paper records of elders served per week, review expense records (food purchases for feeding program days), interview local and expat volunteers to gain context on the program, and engage with community members who regularly benefit from KDCCE's programming.