NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 16 — Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) Founder and CEO Dr. Kennedy Odede’s work has been featured by veteran journalist Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times.
Kristof, who visited Shofco and spent time with Dr. Odede, painted a picture of a transformed slum unlike what he saw when he first visited the organization 12 years ago.
“I am an old friend of Kennedy and have been following his work since my first visit a dozen years ago. One girl I met then, when she was a second grader, is now studying at Columbia University.
“Her former classmates are studying at four other American universities as well as at Kenyan universities,” Kristof opined in his op-ed.
The journalist said Dr. Odede’s organization has set the standards high for other NGOs across the globe by investing to uplift the lives of the most vulnerable people in the communities it serves.
“Billions of dollars are poured into the poorest countries, and in Haiti and South Sudan one sees fleets of expensive white S.U.V.s driven by aid organizations; what’s missing is long-term economic development.
“That’s where SHOFCO is intriguing as an alternative model. Its grass-roots empowerment approach has similarities with BRAC, a Bangladesh-based development organization that I consider one of the most effective aid groups in the world, and with Fonkoze, a similar homegrown nonprofit in Haiti,” he stated.
Dr. Odede has been pushing for localization of aid funds to make grassroots leaders in charge of the local development.
“Development has been part of imperialism — you know better than anybody else because you’re from America or Europe,” Dr. Odede told Kristof at SHOFCO Kibera.
During the visit, Kristof met Lauren Odhiambo, 23, a SHOFCO member whose dad died when she was young.
Lauren joined SHOFCO and took a computer skills class that led to a job that pays Sh2500 a month.
She used that income to work her way through the University of Nairobi, and this year she will become the first person in her family with a college degree.
“This wouldn’t have happened without SHOFCO, she said, and I asked her why, expecting her to talk about the computer skills she learned. Instead, she made a broader point: The program taught her that slum dwellers are as good as anybody else,” Kristof wrote.
Kristof’s visit to Kibera came days after American Queen of Pop Madonna visited SHOFCO and lauded Dr. Odede’s incredible work.
“My children created a mural of broken glass in Kibera in honor of the great work that Kennedy Odede — is doing @shofco , an organization he created when he was a child living in the slums of Nairobi to improve the lives of families living in these challenging conditions.
“Focusing on filtering the water, education, enabling loans for women and men to start-up businesses and putting a stop to gender-based violence by empowering women, taking legal action and giving them a safe space to Rebuild their lives. We are very impressed with his work and his commitment to this community and excited to continue working with him and his wife Jessica,” Madonna wrote on her Instagram page.
Founded in Kibera by Dr. Odede in 20024, SHOFCO has now spread through low-income communities across Kenya and now boasts 2.4 million members, making it one of the largest grass-roots organizations in Africa.
It provides clean water, fights sexual assault, runs a Sacco, health centres, youth and women empowerment programs, community advocacy platforms, schools, libraries, among other programs.
About The Author
