COVID Emergency Support Fund for Women's Health

Thanks to several generous donors, the first $1000 of donations received will be matched on a 1-to-1 basis. Help us double the funds we can raise to support the women of Nikumbuke!

The Nikumbuke Project, located on the southeastern border between Kenya and Tanzania, has always worked to give women access to healthcare and education.  Now, the women of Nikumbuke are taking matters into their own hands to protect their 13 villages from the potential devastation of the coronavirus. For now, the women and their communities are safe. But when COVID gets there (which it surely will), they will have limited access to healthcare, making it more difficult to fight the disease and support the sick. This makes preventing the spread of the virus incredibly important for the health of the villagers. The women of Nikumbuke have begun to prepare for the virus with the resources they have available, but they need your help. We are working to raise money to support our international Nikumbuke Project community.


Nikumbuke is a Swahili term which means "Remember Me." We are asking you to remember the women of Nikumbuke during this trying time by helping to establish an emergency fund for these women and their communities. Funds raised from this outreach will go into an emergency relief fund for the women and families of Nikumbuke. The Nikumbuke COVID Relief Emergency Fund will support the purchase of medication, transportation for healthcare visits, materials for homemade masks, development of makeshift sinks and more.

Please read below about what the impressive women of Nikumbuke are doing in preparation for COVID. 


Last week, the women of Nikumbuke started to proactively prepare for COVID. They requested materials to make masks, build hand-washing sinks, and purchase medications to treat fever (Tylenol). Members of the Nikumbuke Soccer League board and the Nikumbuke Project sent health information from the WHO, patterns for making masks from kanga cloth, instructions for building "Tippy Taps" for hand washing, and modest funds to help the women with these preventative interventions.We want to share with you the incredible work the Nikumbuke women are doing with their limited resources to prepare their communities for this pandemic. The ladies in these pictures are the “teachers/health promoters." They are village representatives who gather to share information, exchange ideas, and organize supplies. They then return to their villages and share the information and supplies provided by Nikumbuke with their communities. This framework has a pyramid effect, reaching and educating thousands. The women are highly respected members of their villages and are essential to making the Nikumbuke system work.

This pandemic is having a devastating effect on communities around the world, but we can fight back by supporting and caring for one another. Please consider contributing to this emergency support fund so that we can keep the women of Nikumbuke smiling and continuing the impressive impact they have on their communities!
(This picture was before social distancing took effect)

Here, the women are building a "Tippy Tap" for handwashing. 

The "Tippy Tap" allows community members to wash their hands while limiting contact with each other as well as decreasing the number of people who would need to touch the same sink. 

Women at Nikumbuke's main meeting site in Lunga Lunga sewing masks from kanga cloth. 

Nikumbuke women assessing their work.