About NURU​

Ian Henderson, our Managing Trustee, has been working in Africa since the mid 1980’s when his first job was leading humanitarian aid convoys from Khartoum to Darfur in Sudan for the Save the Children Fund.

“Sudan was a memorable introduction to Africa. The culture shock was quite something and I remember lying in bed the first night, looking at the bare light bulb in my room, listening to beetles scurrying around the floor and thinking – why did I sign up for six months of this?” Ian said.

The job in Sudan led to others for various charities and United Nations and Ian worked in many African countries in humanitarian roles and commercially for ASSIST Logistics, a company he set up to respond to emergencies with self-supporting transport and civil engineering capacity.

In 2004, Ian Henderson established Superior Homes (Kenya) PLC which has grown steadily to become one of Kenya’s most respected real estate developers.

Superior Homes (Kenya), with the help of the Superior Homes Foundation, implemented the Stakeholder Deductions Policy requiring all stakeholders and suppliers to commit to a deduction equal to 1% of every invoice submitted to Superior Homes (Kenya) Plc. Funds collected through the policy are solely used in the purchase of Feminine Hygiene Products (FHP’s), while all other overhead costs required in the running of Superior Homes Foundation are catered for Superior Homes (Kenya) Plc.

Ian Henderson has said, “We would get regular requests to repair schools, paint hospitals, donate computers and assist with all sorts of other community projects. Mostly reasonable requests and for good causes, but we could not do everything and management had to take time to analyse, discuss and agree with what to do and what not to do. More than 50% of schoolgirls in Kenya’s state schools miss up to four days of education each month due to discomfort and embarrassment around not being able to afford feminine hygiene items. Last year we decided to focus on only one project – to support schoolgirls by distributing feminine hygiene items free of charge to schools surrounding all our Superior Homes Kenya developments.

The Superior Homes Foundation now supports more than 2,500+ schoolgirls every month and at least two new schools are onboarded each month. Every contractor and supplier that does business with Superior Homes has signed up to donate 1% of their contract sums to the Foundation and all this money is spent on product. Superior Homes funds all the staff and logistics costs and all the Foundation overheads.

NURU (meaning ‘light’ in Swahili) is a UK registered charity set up in 2023 to inform donors about the valuable work done by the Superior Homes Foundation and to accept donations on behalf of the Foundation. Again 100% of all monies donated in the UK is spent on product and for every £1 donated, one schoolgirl enjoys a full month of uninterrupted education. With your help the Foundation can be supporting 10,000+ girls every month by the end of 2024.