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Tharaka Nithi County, Kenya

Rooted in dry ground.
Built to outlast the drought.

Tharaka Njega Ministries walks alongside families across Tharaka Nithi County — keeping children in school, caring for the elders who raised us, teaching the land to feed us again, and standing with this community as it makes its own case to the systems that are supposed to serve it.

Give Today See how we work
In partnership with Tharaka Njega Ministries USA, Inc. stewards giving from the United States and reports back on every program dollar spent here in Tharaka Nithi County.
6Program pillars
3Year commitment
111Trees planted per child born
2Ministries, one mission — Kenya & USA

Tharaka Njega Ministries has served this community for years through fellowship and quiet, direct support to families under strain. This is that same work, now organized into a program families can count on: education access, elder healthcare, agribusiness training, mental health and community wellbeing support, a community-led greening tradition, and the advocacy that connects all five to the public systems built to outlast any single grant.

Every program is open to families in the communities we serve, on the basis of need — not membership, and not faith.
How we work

Six ways we're planting something that lasts

Each pillar answers a need we see every week in Tharaka Nithi County — and each one is designed to hold up under drought, not just survive the years when the rains come on time.

01

Education access

We keep children enrolled through the seasons when a poor harvest would otherwise pull them out of school — with particular attention to the girls most at risk of dropping out during hard years.

  • Needs-based bursaries for fees, uniforms, and materials
  • A community learning center with tutoring and a lending library
  • Stipends and training to keep good teachers in rural schools
  • A dedicated retention track for adolescent girls
02

Healthcare for our elders

Many of our elders live far from the nearest clinic, often alone. We bring basic healthcare to them, rather than asking them to find a way to it.

  • Monthly mobile clinics rotating through villages
  • A medication fund for chronic conditions
  • Trained community health volunteers making home visits
  • Nutrition, hydration, and mobility support
03

Agribusiness & sustainable farming

Rain-fed subsistence farming can no longer be counted on. We train households to farm for income, not just survival, using methods built for our soils and our rainfall.

  • Farmer field schools in drought-resistant crops
  • Drip irrigation kits and rainwater harvesting
  • Agribusiness and cooperative marketing training
  • A revolving fund for seed and fertilizer
04

Mental health & community wellbeing

A household can be fed, farming, and in school and still be quietly struggling. We're rebuilding the village that once carried people through hardship together.

  • Community members trained in peer problem-solving support
  • Maternal mental health screening at mobile clinics
  • A confidential pathway to Kenya's national crisis services
  • Pastors and elders equipped as trusted first points of contact
05

Advocacy & social accountability

Direct service only goes so far. This pillar connects the community to the public systems already meant to support it.

  • Campaigning for government school-meal funding
  • Petitioning for greater county agriculture and water budgets
  • Advocating for elder access to Inua Jamii and NHIF
  • Building coalitions across Tharaka Nithi and beyond
If you or someone you love is struggling: Befrienders Kenya +254 722 178 177 (call, SMS, WhatsApp) · Kenya Red Cross 1199. Free, confidential, and available to anyone.
Pillar six · Conservation

The Tharaka Njega Greening Tradition

In the village of Piplantri, Rajasthan, 111 trees are planted for every girl born, and her family commits to her education. Two decades on, the groundwater has risen, the village has grown a forest, and the community's regard for its daughters has grown with it.

We're building our own version of that tradition — rooted in Tharaka Nithi County's own soil, species, and seasons, not borrowed wholesale from a village half a world away.

Fund a tree in a child's name
A homestead in Tharaka Nithi County, showing a residential house and kitchen area
Tharaka Nithi County — field documentation, 2026

A tree for every child

Trees planted in the name of every child born in participating villages — Melia volkensii, acacia, moringa, and grafted fruit trees suited to our climate, not Rajasthan's.

Community-owned nurseries

Women's and youth groups raise seedlings locally, cutting the cost of planting and creating a modest income of their own.

Sand dams & water pans

Community-built water retention, using the same approach that has helped raise water tables in neighboring Kenyan counties for over a decade.

Tharaka Greening Day

An annual planting day that ties tree cover directly to how we celebrate the children born into this community.

Why this model

We didn't design this from scratch

Every pillar of this program is built on an approach with a track record — in Kenya's drylands or in comparable settings elsewhere — not invented from first principles.

01

Farmer training bundled with real market access has helped smallholder households across East Africa grow their way out of subsistence farming, not just survive it.

02

Community-built sand dams, the same technology used in the counties bordering Tharaka Nithi, are a proven, low-cost way to raise a falling water table.

03

Mobile elder health outreach and trained community volunteers is the model organizations working with older people across Kenya have used for decades to reach residents who can't travel to a clinic.

04

A tree planted for every child, tied to a family's commitment to that child's education — the Piplantri tradition this pillar is built on.

We're proud to build on what's already been proven to work here, rather than ask our donors to fund an experiment.

Partnership

One mission, two organizations

Tharaka Njega Ministries Kenya and Tharaka Njega Ministries USA work as a single program with two clear roles — local trust and delivery on one side, US stewardship and reporting on the other.

Tharaka Nithi County

Tharaka Njega Ministries Kenya

Holds the relationships this work depends on — with local chiefs, school administrators, health dispensaries, and farmer groups — and carries out the program on the ground.

Responsible for community mobilization, local procurement, direct service delivery, and monthly field reporting.

United States

Tharaka Njega Ministries USA, Inc.

Mobilizes giving from US individuals, churches, foundations, and corporate donors, and applies US nonprofit financial controls to every dollar raised.

Responsible for donor communication, grant administration, and annual financial reporting back to every partner.

Give

Put a dollar to work in Tharaka Nithi County

Every gift is stewarded by Tharaka Njega Ministries USA and reported on directly by the team delivering the work in Kenya. Give toward the whole program, or toward the piece that speaks to you.

Our online giving portal is being finalized. Reach out today at give@njega.org and our team will walk you through it directly.

Give Today
General fundSupport wherever the need is greatest across all six pillars.
Sponsor a bursaryKeep one child enrolled in school for a full year.
Plant a treeFund the trees, nursery stock, and care behind our greening tradition.
Support an elderCover a season of mobile clinic visits and medication for one elderly resident.
Fund a wellbeing volunteerTrain and support one community peer counselor for a full year.
Back our advocacyHelp fund the organizing that makes these gains stick beyond a single grant.