It’s Only Just Begun: A Brief Look at Our History and Impact

It seems like only yesterday when I first visited the slums in Kenya. There were many firsts on that trip: for some kids, the first time they saw themselves using the screen of my phone; the first time they would see someone with my skin color; and my first experience seeing such desperate need, which seed planted to launch a project later known as Play 4 Smiles.

At that moment - seemingly with my late grandmother whispering in my ear - I knew I’d return to help these children. My grandmother, nisria, demonstrated true compassion and love for others, and I had it set in my heart to follow in her footsteps. 

Many of you were there for those firsts, and supported those early days of our Play 4 Smiles mission, successfully installing playgrounds installed for 900 children in Egypt and Kenya, feeding hundreds of children and sponsoring educational programs for many kids in need. We also did a lot of foundation work to support infrastructure improvements at Loving Hands Safe House in Gilgil, Kenya, to bring more suitable living conditions to the children living in the home. 

Over the years, our mission expanded to offer a more holistic vision about how we can help vulnerable women and children, and today we’re here to make a formal introduction to that fully developed vision and get you up to speed on what we’ve been working on.


Drum roll, please ….

Meet nisria, where healing meets prosperity.

We officially began conducting work as nisria in 2019. Our mission is to provide vulnerable communities, especially children, with a safe space to heal and therefore prosper.

Under our official name, we are making great progress toward changing the world for individuals who otherwise would have no access to opportunity. 

“Have you ever had a dream where you were falling from the sky with no safety net to catch you? The fear of losing everything in a second. The anger of not knowing why you’re the one who must lose it all. The confusion, grief and betrayal of the ones you expected to catch you when you fall. Imagine that dream being your reality. We were too young to understand the words that describe how we felt, but these feelings are buried deep inside our wounds. Being born into abandonment, carrying a badge of shame with no hope of ever being accepted. We could not dream of ever making it this far.” 

— John

Our Programs

With a formal name, we’ve organized our programs into specific vision categories in order to drive strategic progress in each area. Here’s a bird’s eye view of what that looks like, and for details check out our programs page here:

  • Education: We provide sponsorships that give children access to education in private schools, boarding schools, universities and vocational training centers. 

  • Wellness: Our wellness programs currently focus on partnerships with two children’s homes, Loving Hands Safe House in Gilgil and Shadow Mountain, in Nairobi.

  • Nutrition: nisria provides nutritious food supplies to both children’s homes, which house 120 children total. We are also assisting one of the homes with growing food to maintain long-term sustainability. 

  • Healthcare: nisria supports the two children's homes whenever healthcare funding is required, such as for emergencies, regular health check ups and, as possible, fundraising for crucial cases that require extensive medical care. 

  • Rehabilitation: Unfortunately, all the children we support come in with very harsh and painful stories. Wounded and hurt emotionally, they will never find peace and joy unless we can heal these traumas. Rehabilitation has also been provided to many vulnerable women whom have been working as sex workers.

  • Shelter: This comes in the form of fostering or rescuing a child. With every new child in need, the teams at each home decide whether the child should be fostered or assisted into a different home. The children’s homes function as rescue centers when there is a lost, abused or trafficked child. nisria is dedicated to providing children the most positive atmosphere and living conditions as possible.

  • Play: Play helps vulnerable children heal, gives them the possibility to experience new dimensions in themselves, it allows them to build better connections with people around them. Most importantly, play makes these kids happy!

  • Career: When a child turns 18 and is no longer able to live in the children’s home, nisria works to ensure these youth are not turned away and destined back to the streets. 

So, what are we up to?

Nur M'nasria