About us

Rafiki Bra Trust – Friends for the elderly is rooted in love, commitment and respect for the dignity of life through adding a smile and a spirit of hope.

The trust stands for the elevation of the less fortunate, especially the old, by allowing them to have access to basic needs as is every human being’s right. This propels them to become better people and hence make their sunset days worth living.

The Team

Mary Kariuki Bengtsson is the founder/CEO at Rafiki Bra Trust, and is married to Ulf Bengtsson. She is a music lecturer holding a Master of Science degree in industrial and organisational psychology and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy of Education from Warwick University. Born and raised in Kenya, she has witnessed first hand the livelihood of poverty-stricken families and the impact it mainly has on the elderly . These are families living on less than half a dollar a day, sometimes even for a week, catering to over five individuals.

Over and above being extremely poor and old, they suffer from various diseases brought about by their old age and poor living conditions. With a passion to assist, Mary started off by doing shopping for their basic needs and catering for hospital bills to the best of her financial capability.

With time she came to discover more families with old people spread across the country in dire need of basic human needs.

Having been stationed in Sweden for the last 6 years, she started reaching out to well wishers who started donating clothes and household items, which she brought back to Kenya and distributed to the families. It is at this point that she created Rafiki Bra Trust, with the objective of reaching out to more well-wishers in a corporate and structured manner to pull in resources to get aid and distribute items in a more efficient way.