Okennedy Odede remembers seeing how lifes odds had been stacked in opposition to him whereas rising up in Kibera, Kenyas largest city slum, nestled inside the capital metropolis of Nairobi. Generally, its all about the place you had been born, he says. In his teenage years, Odede says he misplaced mates to mob violence, police killings, and suicide. However when there was no meals at dwelling, he additionally remembers that his neighbors ensured he nonetheless had one thing to eat. That love I noticed in my neighborhood again then, it retains me going even now, Odede says.
Right now, the 38-year-old is the founder and CEO of Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO), one of many largest grassroots organizations in Africa. The nonprofit goals to enhance residing situations in Kenyas slums by means of a gamut of community-led packages that vary from free education and assist for small companies to growing entry to scrub water, the web, and bettering public well being.
SHOFCO serves almost 2.4 million folks throughout the nation todaysomething its ebullient founder couldnt have imagined again when he began the group in Kibera in 2004. If I am being sincere, the thought of beginning an NGO and doing proposal writing was not enjoyable, Odede confesses. However in contrast to worldwide support organizations, which Odede says usually parachute in to the creating world with international funds and a top-down method to assist remedy issues, SHOFCO is totally different. Its a grassroots motion, he says. Its the concept we’re a neighborhood, that we all know our issues and our challenges, and that we might help ourselves.
One in all SHOFCOs earliest and most profitable packages is the Kibera College for Ladies, a tuition-free establishment launched in 2009 that serves simply over 350 women from kindergarten to eighth grade. The college was one of many first in a wave of latest faculties began throughout a decade of formidable schooling reforms in Kenya. Now among the many prime 10 public faculties in Nairobi, its college students are persistently top-performers within the countrys nationwide exams. It additionally has delivered a 100% transition price to secondary schooling, with graduates occurring to attend excessive faculties in Kenya and the united statesa significant achievement in a rustic the place lower than 20% of ladies between age 15 and 19 full highschool. For Odede, the proof speaks for itself: Increasingly more women are going to high school in Kibera right now. That was our dream, to vary their mindset by means of schooling. As a result of schooling is freedom.
SHOFCO can also be driving change in different areas, together with unemploymenta vital drawback that impacts younger Kenyans disproportionately. In 2019, its employability coaching program tutored over 650 younger folks, strengthening their abilities in resume constructing, interview and job-finding methods, and understanding employees rights. In September, it launched an formidable five-year program to enroll 20,000 younger folks in its Technical and Instructional Vocation Coaching program and to supply enterprise coaching and grants to almost 50,000 ladies.
Odedes accomplishments are plentyhes been named a Younger International Chief on the World Financial Discussion board, an Obama Basis Africa Chief, a USAID Advisory Board member, and the winner of the Mohammed Ali Humanitarian Award, along with co-writing a New York Instances bestselling memoirbut he isnt accomplished but.
Although hes develop into a worldwide ambassador of types, Odede remains to be looking for a stability between sustaining the tempo that has made SHOFCO a hit and staying linked together with his neighborhood. I am working, working, working, however now, Im not in a position to educate in a classroom or go to a clinic like earlier than, he says. Nonetheless, he is aware of his work is contributing to a bigger effort. Im the engine that retains this factor fired up, however the influence is felt down on the bottom, he says.
This profile is revealed as part of TIMEs TIME100 Influence Awards initiative, which acknowledges leaders from internationally who’re driving change of their communities. The subsequent TIME100 Influence Awards ceremony can be held on Nov. 17 in Kigali, Rwanda.
