Healing starts with connection.
Root & Reconnect Foundation creates spaces where people can care for their mental and emotional wellbeing before life's challenges become crises.
We bring African-centred wellbeing experiences, mental health education, and community healing into the places people already live, work, learn, and gather — making care more accessible, more affordable, and part of everyday life.
We were never meant to heal alone.
For generations, African communities cared for one another through story, music, movement, ceremony, shared responsibility, and the wisdom of elders. Healing wasn't something that happened in a clinic — it was woven into everyday life.
Over time, many of these traditions were disrupted through colonialism, displacement, and the erosion of community structures. The wisdom didn't disappear, but many of the spaces and practices that carried it did.
We are not importing a solution. We are remembering one.
The problem
Today, we see the impactall around us.
Mental health care today is mostly clinical, reactive, and individualistic — treating symptoms after distress has already escalated, at a price and in a language far from everyday African realities.
1 in 4
Kenyans live with a mental health condition
(WHO, 2021)
75%
of people who need support cannot access it
(WHO, 2021)
70%
of young people often feel anxious or unsupported
(R&R Festival Research, 2025)
Most people don't fall apart all at once. They slowly carry more than they have space to put down:
Root & Reconnect exists to create spaces where people don't have to carry those burdens alone — burdens that often trace back to three interconnected fractures:
What we do
We make wellbeing accessiblethrough three connected approaches.
Our impact
We're building a growing movementfor preventative, community-centred wellbeing.
18,000+
festival attendees reached through wellbeing activations
2,000+
individuals trained through the Mental Health Champions Initiative
600+
trained Mental Health Champions ready to deploy
~230
clinical & somatic practitioners in our network
- Constituted a founding Board of Directors with clear governance from day one
- Partnered with the Nairobi Street Food Festival to integrate wellbeing into large public events
- Delivered 5 community wellbeing activations — play, forest walks, tree planting, dance, movement, art therapy, and wellbeing conversations facilitated by licensed therapists
- Purchased private land in Kajiado to develop a permanent nature-based healing centre, in relationship with neighbours and indigenous custodians
- Built strategic partnerships with practitioners, therapists, artists, and community organisations across Nairobi
“The experience touched something core in my soul. The act of planting trees with bare hands, contributing to nature after walking in the forest and then dancing and playing, it was unlike anything I have ever experienced in my life.”
PLAYTIME participant
No one organisation can transform wellbeing alone.
If our vision resonates with you, we'd love to explore what's possible together.