About Us

 

 

Nafsi Africa is a Community Based Organization (CBO) in Nairobi Kenya composed of contemporary social artists from around the slums of Nairobi. Nafsi’ is a Swahili word for soul and the organization was founded in 2002 with a mission using arts and talent for livelihood and as a tool for social cohesion in the community.

The organization uses arts (music, acrobatics, circus, dance, yoga, percussion, theater, crafts and visual arts) to mobilize and reach out to the disadvantaged/underprivileged persons hence providing them with an avenue for expression, social dialogue, self awareness and competence among the children and the youth around the slums of Nairobi. 

Our programs majorly aims to positively impact the lives of the unprivileged children and youth in the slums by equipping them with skills and exposing them to opportunities which restores hope to the young children and later opens up income opportunities for the then in adulthood. Since 2008, Nafsi has made collaborations with organizations and friends in Europe who enabled our teams to travel for 3 months annually since then. The Nafsi professional acrobats who have been traveling come back home and give back to the community by training children from the slums and mentoring them as ambassadors of hope for the community.

The Nafsi Africa acrobats have participated in peace conventions in Italy where they discuss issues related to attainment of peace in Africa. Some of these peace conventions discuss issues that affect the creative industries in Africa and the impacts it has on a regional and global prospect.  In 2014, Nafsi started a collaboration with Global Kids Europe which has enabled children to travel to Bulgaria, Germany, Denmark and Austria. The children have traveled to these countries to make themed theatrical presentations touching on the current global issues of cultural diversity, environmental management topics on clean water and proper sanitation, sustainable farming, recycling and climate change among other topics.  The project has enabled 37 children aged between 8-17 years travel to these countries making performances and interacting with the children from the schools over there.