25 Years Transformation. From Crisis to Community.
Since 2001, Miss Koch Kenya has worked block by block through Korogocho — Nairobi’s third-largest informal settlement — turning one radical act by a group of young people into a movement, and that movement into permanent infrastructure.
25 years · 300+ scholarships · 8,000+ households reached in our COVID-19 response · 90 DJs trained · 4,500 residents served daily by the Material Recovery Facility we built with the community
Where we started
In 2001, Korogocho was living under a culture of silence. Gangs controlled entire sections of the settlement — areas the local administration and police couldn’t enter. Gender-based violence was rampant, and the fear that kept it that way went largely unchallenged. Earlier efforts by other groups to intervene had failed, fragmented and unsupported.
A group of committed young people decided that silence wasn’t the only option. They organized the first Miss Koch Beauty Pageant — under the rallying cry “Never Say Die, Yes We Can” — not as entertainment, but as a public act of defiance: a way to reclaim visibility, safety, and voice in a place where all three had been taken away. What started as the Miss Koch Initiative, a platform for girls’ emancipation and empowerment, grew over the following decade into an organization serving all Korogocho youth.
In 2010, that grassroots initiative formalized into a registered NGO — a shift that let us professionalize our operations and open the door to international partnership and funding, without losing the community roots that started it.
Timeline
2001
Founded
A beauty pageant turns crisis into community voice: “Never Say Die, Yes We Can.”
2006
Koch FM 99.9 launch
Kenya’s first community radio station goes on air, giving Korogocho’s urban poor a platform of their own.
2010
NGO Registration
MKK professionalizes from a community-based organization into a registered NGO, opening access to international partnership.
2013–2022
A LOT-Change Project
MKK professionalizes from a community-based organization into a registered NGO, opening access to international funding.
2020–2022
COVID-19 response
8,000+ households fed; 1,000+ girls reached with sanitary products during a period when the usual support systems around them had collapsed.
2025
Material Recovery Facility breaks ground
8,000+ households fed; 1,000+ girls reached with sanitary products during a period when the usual support systems around them had collapsed.
What We Stand for
Vision
Transforming lives by empowering minds.
Mission
To empower young people through education, nurturing talents, mentorship, and life-skills for their sustained social well-being.
Values
Trustworthy
We conduct ourselves as a trusted agent, pursuing our mission in a way that best represents the communities we serve.
Resourceful
Every resource we hold is used prudently, for one purpose: achieving our mission.
Accessible
We are accountable to our community, and we work to stay reachable by anyone who needs our support.
Caring
We address every individual’s situation on its own terms, with empathy and confidentiality.
Ethical
We do the right thing, including doing no harm — to people and to the community we’re part of.