Since its founding, the EJ Rihoy Charitable Trust has delivered practical support to some of the world’s most disadvantaged communities. In 2024, the Trust began a new partnership with the David Mahungu Leadership Foundation (DMLF), a Kenyan organisation focused on developing young leaders from marginalised backgrounds. That partnership is now set to become the Trust’s primary overseas focus.
Over the next few years, the Trust will support the Foundation’s ambitious growth plan – from working with 20 students in 2025 to reaching 500 by 2030. This phased expansion will also see DMLF extend its catchment area beyond Laikipia to other underserved regions of Kenya, significantly broadening its impact on youth leadership and community development.
Transforming lives through leadership
DMLF works with youth who show leadership potential but lack access to the opportunities that would allow them to thrive. Through scholarships, mentoring, life skills training and leadership camps, the Foundation equips these individuals to become role models and changemakers.
The impact is personal and profound: scholars report increased self-awareness, academic success, and a greater sense of purpose. Some have started community businesses or peer mentorship groups. They are not only altering the course of their own futures, but also creating ripples of change around them.
The SLAP Bootcamp – one of several training programmed all DMLF students undertake – focuses on values-based leadership, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, and civic responsibility. These are the qualities that empower young people to stand up as advocates, bridge builders and positive disruptors in communities long shaped by inequality and exclusion.
A collective impact for the future
By placing the DMLF at the heart of its international efforts, the EJ Rihoy Trust is affirming its belief in long term, community-led transformation. The goal is not only to support individuals but to build a new generation of leaders who reflect the strength, talent and resilience of Kenya’s most underserved regions.
By investing in young leaders, the Trust is providing support directly to this new generation of leadership from marginalised communities to empower them to build resilient and flourishing communities.
