Asha Jaffar

Asha Jaffar is a young Kenyan activist and journalist voted as the 2020 Africans Rising Activist of the Year by Africans Rising members. 

Born and raised in Kibera, Asha is paving a way forward for a new generation of African changemakers. She is the founder and CEO of Kibra Food Drive, an initiative she and a group of local activists initiated in response to the devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic in their community. As people in Kibera lost their jobs and livelihoods due to the virus, Jaffar and her colleagues developed the food drive to support families disproportionately affected by social distancing policies. The initiative has now helped feed over 3,000 families and their work continues. 

As she looks ahead, she says, “We need to continue this progress by helping people get their jobs, sustaining themselves, going back into boosting their businesses and social enterprises.”

“We believe in telling the success stories of Africans doing things for their own people,” she said.

Additional reporting on Jaffar and the Kibra Food Drive has been published by media outlets including The New York Times and National Geographic. 

For more information about Jaffar, the Kibra Food Drive, and how you can donate to support their work, visit: http://www.kibrafooddrive.co.ke