Nairobi, KenyaEstablished 2025
The Foundation works for the health, education and well-being of women and children in Kenya — through access to good healthcare, a proper education, and clean water close to home.
For seventeen years Dr. Kiereini shaped how Kenya cares for its mothers and its children. The Foundation carries that purpose into a new generation — quietly, practically, and where it is needed most.
Our work
The Foundation's objects are fixed by the instrument that constitutes it. They are deliberately practical, and they are the whole of what we may do.
Access to care, and the means to reach it.
Supporting hospitals, clinics, maternity and childcare centres and community health units; providing treatment, rehabilitation and medical care; funding grants for patients and for the institutions that serve them; and public education on the prevention of illness.
A place to learn, and the means to stay there.
Establishing and supporting schools, vocational institutions, literacy centres and libraries; scholarships and bursaries for students at home and abroad; books, stipends and travel; and support for research and for the teachers and institutions who carry it out.
Clean water, close to home.
Boreholes, wells, tanks and water courses for settlements, rural areas and villages; safe sanitation; and public education on the conservation of water and of the catchments that supply it.
Alongside these, the Foundation may accept gifts and bequests, raise funds, hold and manage property for charitable use, and work with institutions and community organisations in Kenya and elsewhere in furtherance of the objects above.
The founder
Dr. Eunice Muringo Kiereini is a Kenyan nurse, health administrator and global nursing leader. She placed African nursing on the world stage, and spent a career building the systems that care for those least able to pay for care.
Born the eldest of ten children to Richard Karuga Githae and Grace Njeri, both teachers. Among her nine siblings was the writer Micere Githae Mugo.
Left for the United Kingdom to train as a nurse at Southampton General Hospital, qualifying in 1962, and afterwards specialising in midwifery in Edinburgh.
Returned to Kenya to work at King George VI Hospital, now Kenyatta National Hospital. Further study in New Zealand followed, and in 1966 she came home with an advanced diploma in nursing education and administration.
Appointed Chief Nursing Officer of Kenya, one of the most senior women in the public service, and held the office for seventeen years. She rebuilt nursing education, strengthened regulation, and extended training into the community.
Elected President of the International Council of Nurses, the first African and the first nurse from the developing world to hold the office in an organisation founded in 1899. She served until 1985, and was later the first African woman appointed to the World Health Organisation's Global Commission on AIDS.
The Foundation is constituted by deed and incorporated under the Trustees (Perpetual Succession) Act, carrying that work forward for the women and children of Kenya.
Governance
The Foundation is a charitable trust, incorporated in Kenya. Its trustees hold and apply its funds solely for the objects set out in the Trust Deed.
Dr. Eunice Muringo Kiereini
Founder and Trustee
CBS, EBS, MBS. Chief Nursing Officer of Kenya, 1968–1985. President of the International Council of Nurses, 1981–1985.
TO BE CONFIRMED
Trustee
TO BE CONFIRMED
Trustee
The Foundation welcomes approaches from institutions, community organisations and individuals whose work meets its objects, and from those who wish to support it.
Correspondence address and email to be confirmed by the trustees.