Our Journey

Our Journey

The charity was founded first in Kenya to support vulnerable children and families to break cycles of poverty in Kenya. Our organisation has been through a bold journey of change and growth that we are proud of. 

Raising Futures Kenya as it is today was radically rebranded in 2018. Before this, we were known as ‘Vision Africa – Give a Child a Future’; a charity initially founded by Reverend and Mrs Packard, a British couple living in Kenya. Vision Africa worked with communities and schools to support children of all faiths and none, mainly through child sponsorship. 

In 2017, the #ShiftThePower movement began, calling for international charities to give more control, resources, and decision-making power to the local communities they work in. This was a call to action for us. 

To make the most effective and long lasting change for young people in Kenya, we realised we must be led by local experts that know firsthand the challenges young people in Kenya face.

We committed to the movement by officially recognising the Kenyan-led NGO as a separate organisation and expert partner NGO to our UK charity in 2018, and choosing to move away from the child sponsorship model. 

In 2026 the Kenyan NGO re-branded to Growing Seeds to make the distinction between the UK and Kenya organisations even clearer. Today, our structure comprises a clear UK-registered charity Raising Futures Kenya and Kenyan-led NGO. The partnership is focused on vocational training and wellbeing support for youth employment and self-reliance.

“Shifting power has meant that the Kenyan NGO leads the UK partner on what is needed and how it should be implemented and then, together, the decision on how this shall be funded is discussed between both organizations. This has ensured that the response and interventions implemented in Kenya are for real and existing needs in our communities.”

Mary Mwangi

Executive Director – Raising Futures Kenya NGO

Key moment of transformation

In 2021, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, with sky rocketing youth unemployment and deepening poverty and inequality for the marginalised communities we work with, we pivoted to meet needs and equip more young people with the skills to generate income more quickly. 

Having previously handed over two self-sustainable projects to the community, we focussed on the Seed of Hope programme to maximise our impact in tackling poverty through skills education. We took stock of our strengths, identified gaps, and implemented learning to transform delivery and achieve a rapid growth in delivery:

  • condensed all accredited courses
  • changed the timetable for our academic year eliminating long holiday closures
  • increased student support to reduce barriers to learning
  • introduced a business and digital skills short course 

The following year, we had supported as many young people as we had in the previous 10 years!

We have since expanded course options and facilities and reached a milestone of supporting over 1,000 children and young people each year.