About Jamii Bora Trust

Established in 1999
Jamii Bora Trust was established in 1999 at the initiative of 50 street beggar families in Nairobi. Jamii Bora was registered as a charitable Trust in Kenya on 22 November 1999.

Our Mission is to assist our members to get out of poverty and build a better life for their families.
Our experience is that any family, however poor, miserable, and hopeless, is capable of getting themselves out of poverty. We want to strengthen and utilise all the skills, determination and hard work of the people of Kenya to build a better nation through better families.

Our Members
By 30 September 2007, the Trust had over 170,000 members. Many of the members are street beggars or ex-street beggars. Thus, nobody is too poor to become a member of Jamii Bora.

Some members are on their way out of poverty, a few would even say they are not poor any more. They are now the mentors of those who are still very poor.  Our mentor members help a lot by being an example. They are living proof that however poor you are, you can get out of poverty if you are determined enough.

Our Organisation
The headquarters is located in Nairobi. The operations were, by 30 September 2007, carried out in 86 branches. The branches are responsible for registration of new members, receipt of savings and loan repayments, monitoring timely loan repayments and review of loan applications. Members are organised in credit groups with five members in each group. The group members guarantee each other’s loans and provide important moral and social support to each other.