Clean Start Africa
Clean Start Solutions
Broader Sectors
- Livelihoods - Lokumu/Dignity
Demographic Focus
- Women and Girls
Cohort: 03
- East Africa
- Kenya
Clean Start Solutions has worked with over 4000 women impacted by Kenya’s criminal justice system to restore their dignity and successfully reintegrate them back into society. Programs include safe, healing spaces for psycho-social support, life-skills and entrepreneurship training, access to economic opportunities, and holistic responsive care to children living in prison with their mothers.
Why Their Work Matters: 90% of imprisoned women in Kenya are single parents and breadwinners, yet justice systems are not adequately gender responsive. Most women are imprisoned due to petty survival crimes, and their low-income status renders them unable to afford their bail and avoid prison. Clean Start Solutions addresses the critical need for economic opportunities and dignity for formerly imprisoned women who face tremendous challenges when transitioning back into society.
Partner Impact
Leadership Highlight
Teresa Njoroge
Teresa Njoroge served a wrongful prison sentence between 2009 - 2011 at the Langata Women Maximum Security prison, accompanied by her then 3-month-old daughter, after handling a fraudulent transaction unknowingly while working as a Banker. Her first-hand experience of prison, the desperate plight of the women and girls she met behind bars, and the revolving door of crime and poverty she witnessed inspired her to devote her life to the equipping, empowering, and preparing imprisoned women for the precarious journey of successful reintegration back into society.
She currently serves as the Founder and CEO of Clean Start Solutions Kenya, the first and only Social Enterprise founded and run by a formerly imprisoned woman. An ardent advocate against social injustices in Kenya and Africa, she focuses on how imprisonment disproportionately affects individuals and families living in poverty, collaboratively reforming the Justice system. She is a woman of faith, and serves in this calling diligently.
