Friends of Tendo Social Development Diaspora Fund

Tendo Social Development Group

What if agricultural residue could replace synthetic materials, create livelihoods and give young people more choices about their future?

That question captures what Tendo Social Development Group is working to achieve in Kenya.

Tendo is a Kenyan nonprofit creating sustainable livelihood opportunities for women and young people, particularly in communities where unemployment and limited economic opportunities can make migration feel like the only path to a better life.

Our belief is simple: “The grass can be green here.”

We do not seek to discourage migration. We want women and young people to have genuine economic choices—whether they choose to build a livelihood in their community, move elsewhere in Kenya, or migrate internationally.

From banana residue to beautiful hair

One of Tendo's most exciting innovations began with something normally left behind after a banana harvest: the banana pseudostem.

We are developing fibre extracted from these pseudostems into natural hair extensions. This creates the potential for a new circular value chain:

BANANA FARMERS → FIBRE → WOMEN & YOUTH → NATURAL HAIR EXTENSIONS → BRAIDERS & SALONS → CONSUMERS

Following six months of research and development, Tendo has produced a functional, wearable banana-fibre hair extension. Prototypes have been worn and tested by women and have also been worked with and evaluated by professional braiders.

The next challenge is to move from a successful prototype to a consistent, market-ready product.

The environmental opportunity is compelling. Conventional hair extensions rely heavily on synthetic materials. We want to establish how far renewable banana fibre can substitute for these materials while creating productive value from agricultural residue left after the fruit has been harvested.

We are deliberately taking an evidence-based approach. Rather than simply describing the product as “green,” “plastic-free” or “biodegradable,” we want to measure and validate its environmental performance—including synthetic-material substitution, banana-residue utilisation, water and energy use, waste recovery, durability and end-of-life options.

One innovation. Multiple opportunities.

For banana farmers, fibre could create an additional source of value from the banana plant after the fruit has been harvested.

For women, opportunities can extend across fibre preparation, treatment and finishing, production, quality control, packaging, distribution, braiding, salon services and enterprise.

For young people, the emerging value chain can create opportunities in processing, production, technology, logistics, digital marketing, sales and entrepreneurship.

For the environment, the innovation gives us an opportunity to demonstrate whether an agricultural residue can become a commercially useful renewable material that reduces reliance on conventional synthetic fibre.

And for communities, viable green enterprises can expand the economic choices available to people who might otherwise migrate primarily because they see few livelihood opportunities closer to home.

Creating livelihoods. Expanding choices.

Tendo's work goes beyond banana fibre.

From our programmes in Kendu Bay in Homa Bay County and Mukuru in Nairobi, we work with women and young people to develop practical pathways to income through enterprise development, agripreneurship, climate-smart agriculture, production and sales.

We are also working with partners to help young women make safer and better-informed decisions about migration—understanding their rights, assessing risks, comparing the true financial implications of different opportunities and considering viable livelihood pathways closer to home.

Across these activities, our purpose remains the same:

Create livelihoods. Expand choices. Strengthen communities.

What your donation can make possible

Your support can help us take our banana-fibre innovation from successful R&D to market readiness.

Donations can contribute to product refinement and quality testing; improved fibre processing and pilot production; building a reliable supply chain with banana farmers and cooperatives; expanded testing with consumers, braiders and salons; environmental measurement and validation; more efficient use of water and energy; and preparing women and young people to participate in the emerging value chain.

We believe environmental innovation becomes even more powerful when it also creates economic opportunity.

A banana plant can create value beyond its fruit. Agricultural residue can become a resource. Women and young people can participate in a new green value chain. And migration can become a choice rather than a necessity.

Help us turn agricultural residue into opportunity—for people and for the planet.