Otto Benecker Foundation

Otto Benecker Foundation was founded in 1996 by young people in Mathare, the second largest informal settlement in Nairobi city, Kenya as a girl’s football team. The Team was heavily supported by Father Otto Benecker of St. Benedict Parish, Mathare. The organization was christened Otto Benecker Development Foundation in his honor and remembrance. The team comprised of girls aged between10-14, 15-16, 16-17 and 18, it later started enlisting young ladies aged 18 years and above. The focus on girls was inspired by the lack of spaces for young girls, to engage socially in a structured manner, access information through training, mentorship and coaching, and access to basic social economic services. Like their male peers, football became a promising entry point to barriers on teen girl’s issues and a change agent; with time, the organization expanded to embrace adolescent boys and girls of different age sets, youth, women and special groups.