Teresa Njoroge

Founder, Clean Start

In 2009, Teresa, a senior bank manager, was arrested for a financial crime that she did not commit and, in 2011, was sentenced to a year in Langata Women Maximum Security Prison, Nairobi with her new-born baby daughter.

Teresa’s first-hand experience of prison, the desperate plight of women, girls and children she met behind bars inspired her to devote her life to empowering female inmates to better prepare for their precarious journey of reintegration into society. 

Teresa was fully exonerated, and after her release she founded non-profit organisation Clean Start - with the aim of delivering impactful pre-release coaching programs for female inmates enabling them to access education, training and employment post- release.

Through partnerships with corporates, community and faith organisations, Clean Start aims to provide sustainable second chances for women and girls leaving prison. 

In addition to the support for women and girls behind bars, Clean Start is pioneering an Early Child Development Programme for the hundreds of under-fives who accompany their mothers into prison, for whom there is no educational provision.