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Kibera Day Care Center for the Elderly
Last updated May 2025
Challenge
In Kibera, growing older often means growing invisible.
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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.
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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.
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It’s a simple, deeply human model: show up, offer care, and keep elders connected to food, health, and one another.
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Impact
Each week, KDCCE:
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Serves nutritious meals to 50-100 elders at the center. For many elders, this is their only reliable nutritious meal all week.
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Conducts home visits to 4 homebound elders each month.
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Offers enrichment activities to 25-35 elders: literacy classes, know-your-rights sessions, skills trainings, group exercise and more.
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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.
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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.​
