Wairimu is an award-winning Creative Artist, a Writer and the Founder & CEO of Literature Africa Foundation (LAF), an NGO with a mission to advance access to inclusive, quality education and economic empowerment opportunities to vulnerable young people living in Kenya, through academic and literacy support, skills training and mentorship. She is passionate about raising a generation of self-reliant individuals through LAF’s 3 programs; the Book_a_Child Campaign, the ILead Program & the Somo2kazi Program. To date, 6,000+ children and youths have benefited from the programs since 2015.
She has authored 8 Educational Books, 5 of which have been approved for use in schools across East Africa by the relevant Curriculum Development Centers. Her book titled “Disability is not Inability” published by The Jomo Kenyatta Foundation was rated among top 5 books in Schools and Library Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa by Worldreader for 2 years (2016 & 2017). In addition, Wairimu currently serves as Africa Director for KAHINI, a global platform whose writing programs provide the space and opportunity to create, revise, and develop new literary work so as to deepen the creative practice and finalize work for publication or public performance.
An alumnus of the Leadership in Business Institute of Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University (USA), Wairimu is a 2019 Mandela Washington Fellow, a 2016 Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) RLC East Africa Fellow and a 2020 Salzburg Global Fellow. She is a 2021 WISE Emerging Leader, a Fellowship she was awarded by WISE Qatar Foundation for her active engagement in designing & delivering education initiatives in Kenya. In addition, Wairimu was among The 2018 Top 40 Under 40 Women in Kenya Award recipients.
With over 6 years’ experience in the education sector, Wairimu aspires to actively take part in creating systemic change in the education ecosystem by offering learners a platform to open dialogues with their teachers, other education stakeholders and policy makers. As such, she creates forums for them to reimagine creativity and innovation in the way we deliver and experience education as well as develop learning strategies that improve education outcomes.