We believe healing is both personal and collective.
Root & Reconnect Foundation is a Kenyan non-profit working to make mental and emotional wellbeing more accessible through African-centred, community-based approaches.
Our story
Building what we needed
Root & Reconnect was founded by women who understand this work from combining lived experience with strategic, clinical, and institutional leadership. Not because they have all the answers, but because they know what it means to search for healing, belonging, and community.
Along that journey, they recognised something important: many of the challenges we experience as individuals have deeper roots. Burnout is rarely just about work. Loneliness is rarely just about being alone. Stress is rarely caused by one difficult week. Our wellbeing is shaped by our relationships, our communities, our histories, our environments, and the systems we live within.
Root & Reconnect was created to help rebuild the spaces that allow people and communities to care for one another again.
This work is personal. It is collective. And it is rooted in hope.
Our theory of change
From access to ecosystem
Our values
What we believe
- Everyone deserves access to quality wellbeing support.
- Healing is something we do individually and together.
- Prevention is more important than treatment.
- Rest, beauty, joy, and belonging are essential, not optional.
- Communities shouldn't have to wait for crises before receiving care.
- African knowledge has an important role to play in the future of wellbeing.
- Every person has something valuable to contribute.
- Care should become part of our culture, not a luxury.
What makes us different
Designed for prevention, built for community
- We build wellbeing infrastructure, not one-off activations
- Replicable, community-based systems of care — from facilitated spaces and learning programmes to long-term healing environments and practitioner networks.
- We activate dormant community capacity
- Deployment pathways for trained Mental Health Champions, facilitators, psychologists, and practitioners who already hold valuable skills but lack sustainable community infrastructure.
- We integrate African ancestral wisdom with modern wellbeing science
- Collective care traditions, storytelling, rhythm, embodiment, and interdependence — combined with trauma-informed, nervous system-based approaches.
- We prioritise prevention
- We intervene before distress becomes crisis, strengthening resilience, emotional regulation, and relational health early.
- We meet people where they are
- Festivals. Schools. Workplaces. Community spaces. Public gatherings. We reduce the barrier to seeking support by embedding wellbeing into everyday life.
- We are building affordability into the model
- Through tiered access, partnerships, and blended funding structures, we are working to make high-quality wellbeing support accessible across income levels.
Leadership
Founding Board
Valary Mumbo
Board Chairperson
Marie Githinji
Board Secretary
Chief Strategy Officer
Wangechi Mwangi
Board Treasurer
CEO
Nivedita Sharma
Board Member
Dr Margaret Kagwe
Board Member
“We are building what we needed. Spaces where care comes before crisis. Where rest is not earned. Where healing is not a luxury reserved for the few.”
One part of a wider orchestra.
We grow through relationship — with funders, institutions, practitioners, and connectors.