The Giving Exchange 2026 Trip to Kenya

Written By The Giving Exchange

August 10–19, 2026 | Kenya

This August, The Giving Exchange returned to Kenya for ten days of project visits, partner meetings, and time with the communities at the center of our work. TGE staff and Ambassadors traveled from Kiambu to the Kenyan coast and then to Western Kenya, visiting both new and longtime partners and seeing firsthand how TGE-supported projects have grown. From business training and sustainable agriculture to vocational programs and women-led enterprises, the trip gave us the opportunity to reconnect, learn, and better understand where our partnerships are making a difference.

Day 1: Morning Star & Divine Mercy

We began at Morning Star and Divine Mercy, two longtime TGE partners. At Morning Star, we spent the morning with the children singing, making name tags, drawing with chalk, building with LEGOs, and getting to know one another. At Divine Mercy, founder Sister Esther welcomed the group, shared updates on new and ongoing projects, and gave us a tour of the grounds. Ambassador Tobin led a story and art activity with the children before we returned to Morning Star. It was a simple first day centered on reconnecting with old friends and introducing our ambassadors to the communities they would hear much more about throughout the trip.

Side Note: Sister Esther is one of our two Guests of Honor at our Gala this year – get tickets today to hear from her live on October 17, 2026 in Pleasant Hill, CA.

Day 2: BLOOM & Recycling in Action

The morning began with six graduates of TGE’s new BLOOM business training program, led by our Head of Training, Brian. The graduates shared how they are developing businesses and community projects ranging from childcare to skills training, while our ambassadors had the chance to hear about their progress and experiences with BLOOM firsthand. Later, we visited a TGE-supported recycling operation, transforming discarded glass bottles into reusable materials while creating local jobs. The project also works with cardboard and plastic, expanding recycling efforts within surrounding communities. We ended the day at Morning Star, where the children surprised two of our Ambassadors, Tobin and Montana, with birthday songs and handmade cards.

Day 3:  Free Day Field Trips

For our fun day, the group split up into two groups: one went on a field trip to an amusement park and an arcade with children from Morning Star while the other group went on a safari in Nairobi National Park with Safari Francis! While some spent the day seeing animals, others spent time spending quality fun time learning more about the kids. As a once-a-year outing, nothing beats the smiles and laughter of this special day!

Day 4: A flight to Malindi to visit RegisTree

An early flight took us to Malindi, a town on the Kenyan Coast, where Fardosa, founder of RegisTree, welcomed us to two project sites. At the first site, women from the local community are learning to raise chickens and generate income through sales at local markets. At RegisTree’s expanded site, we saw chicken farming, composting, and black soldier fly larvae production working together as part of a more sustainable farming model. The larvae provide an affordable source of chicken feed while the operation makes productive use of materials that might otherwise become waste. Between visits, we experienced some of Malindi’s history and coastline, including the Indian Ocean and the centuries-old Ruins of Gedi.

Day 5: Chemi Chemi Project and a tour of Old Town Mombasa

At Chemi Chemi, we met Madam Mercy and many young mothers who have survived gender-based violence. Chemi Chemi has received two TGE grants and works to help teenage mothers develop practical skills and more reliable ways to support themselves and their children. At Chemi Chemi they also receive trauma-based therapy and support. We spent time learning about the program, hearing stories from the women, and buying some of the goods they created. Before leaving the coast, we explored Old Town Mombasa, learned more about its history and culture, and caught a late-night flight back to Kiambu.

Day 6: Kisima Project & Njoo Dada

At the Kisima Project, we learned how the organization supports children from the Gataka slums through educational assistance, life skills, guidance, and programming during Sundays and school holidays. After disease severely affected its livestock, Kisima has been rebuilding its farming operation, which, together with its vegetable gardens, generates income to help cover school fees, uniforms, and supplies. While there, Reanna hosted a dance activity with the kids! We then visited Njoo Dada Trust, founded by Lunar Odawa, to support teenage mothers through housing assistance, counseling, life skills, and vocational training. We also heard the story of Cecilia, a former participant who now mentors' other young women while running her own goods store and bakery.

Day 7: GAASPP & Western Kenya

While Day 7 marked the official end of the main Ambassador Trip, a smaller TGE group continued west, flying into Kitale and traveling toward Kisumu. In Webuye, we visited GAASPP, where TGE funded sewing machines for a tailoring skills program for teenage mothers in 2024. Since then, GAASPP has trained 150 girls in tailoring and dressmaking through three-month training cycles. We ended the day with our friends from Blair in Kenya, a local school partnering with TGE for September’s BLOOM business training program.

Day 7 Pt 2: A Full-Circle Visit with Joanne

The rest of the group finished their last day with one of the trip’s most meaningful visits with Joanne, whom TGE first met when she was 11 years old. Joanne and her three brothers had been part of the Morning Star program since she was six. Years later, she successfully applied for a TGE grant and opened her own clothing store. Today, Joanne is married, a mother of two, and a successful business owner with plans to continue expanding. Visiting her store gave our team the rare opportunity to see the long-term progression of a relationship that began during Joanne’s childhood and eventually grew into support for her own business.

Day 9: WA-WA Kenya in Kisumu

In Kisumu, we visited WA-WA Kenya and learned more about its work creating economic opportunities for women in fishing communities. One of its initiatives transforms locally available water hyacinth and papyrus into handmade paper products, incorporating colorful Ankara fabric into the finished pieces. The vocational program provides women with additional skills and income opportunities in communities where economic vulnerability can expose women to exploitative practices, including “sex for fish.” It was another example of a locally designed project addressing both an economic and community challenge.

Day 10: Dreams Redefined & Back to Nairobi

Our final project visit was with Dreams Redefined CBO in Kisumu, where a TGE-funded initiative is supporting widows working within the local fishing economy. TGE funding provided a fish-smoking machine and drying racks for minnows, giving the women equipment to process their catch and support their income-generating work. From Kisumu, we flew back to Nairobi and closed the trip with a final dinner and reflection on ten days of travel, conversations, project visits, and new and renewed relationships.

Key Takeaways

After ten days in the field, and more than a decade of annual trips since 2013, three lessons stood out:

1.     Our in-country team is multiplying our impact. TGE has grown from a volunteer-run organization to seven full-time team members, and we hosted our first-ever staff retreat to plan for the future. As a result, we expect to launch more than 35 social enterprises this year alone, compared with what used to be two to six in a typical year.

2.    Education remains key. Our BLOOM business training program launched in January and has already trained 120 leaders from 60 organizations. The curriculum was created and is taught by our Head of Training, Brian Munaita, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Hearing directly from BLOOM leaders was a highlight for our ambassadors and staff alike.

3.    Grassroots solutions are the long-term solutions. As international aid declines, East Africans, led by a fast-growing and hardworking youth population, are turning to social entrepreneurship to solve their own challenges. TGE's model of funding self-sustaining, income-generating enterprises fits this moment, and the need will last for years to come. We're building it one entrepreneur, one family, and one community at a time.

Get Involved, Make Lasting Impact

If this trip recap has you dreaming about your next adventure, or wondering how to do more to help in this big, wild and wonderful world, we invite you to take these next steps:

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