Mombasa, Kenya, Jun 21 – A total of 212 underprivileged children and those with physical challenges from the coast region will not have to worry about school fees for the next one year thanks to the generosity of Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) CEO and founder Kennedy Odede.
SHOFCO which started off in Kibera using sports and other arts as a way of helping the community is slowly spreading its wings to more parts of the country.
Odede toured Mombasa, Kilifi and Kwale counties in a ground-breaking four-day visit which saw him traverse Bangladesh, Maweni, Mishomoroni and Likoni in Mombasa, Majengo, Chumani, Rabai and Chonyi in Kilifi as well as a number of areas in Kwale county.
The slum communities in these counties had already seen and enjoyed Odede’s generosity before, especially during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic where he provided them and many others across the country with free food, cash, water, soap and hand sanitizers but nothing had prepared them for this.
Sh4mn worth of bursaries was given out by the SHOFCO boss to the children, some of whom their education had been cut short while others were almost dropping out of school due to poverty.
Parents of the beneficiaries are still in awe, thanking their lucky stars after spending months agonizing about how the future of their children would be without an education.
“I have been hearing and reading in the media about Kennedy and SHOFCO and what he has done for the slum community especially in Kibera and Mathare but I could not imagine that one day, he would come over here and help us too. May God bless him,” said Halima Mwiwa, whose son was about to drop out of school due to lack of school fees.
Walter Charo, who has seen his physically challenged daughter struggle to go to school for years is still in shock after Odede’s hand of giving was extended his way. “We have been applying for bursaries here but it only goes to a few who are connected. Thank you SHOFCO, thank you Kennedy,” said Charo.
Education is one of the key pillars of SHOFCO and Odede has invested heavily in this area. In Kibera and Mathare, there are two schools which provide full scholarships to girls from poor families.
The Kibera school has sat for KCPE in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 with their performance speaking quality. The 2020 class felled giants to emerge in the top three in Kibera sub-county with three students posting over 400 marks, 14 between 350 and 399 with just five below 350 among the 22 candidates for a mean score of 365, the highest ever.
Odede, who grew up in Kibera, experiencing extreme poverty, also needed a scholarship to get an education and since then, he has never abandoned the slum community.
“Education is paramount. It is the only sure way of ending poverty because after school, all these children will come back to be the change agents in their communities,” Odede told the people of coast region while handing out the bursaries.
An award winning philanthropist, Odede’s hand of giving knows no end and besides bursaries, where each beneficiary received Sh20,000, he opened community centres as well as water projects in the three counties.
Accompanied by Mombasa Deputy Governor William Kingi, who was his host in County 001, he handed over a bus and water truck to be used by Shofco Urban Network (SUN) members in the region, extending SHOFCO’s tentacles to 15 counties in Kenya so far.
SHOFCO also has a community SACCO which has seen its members save as little as Ksh300 per month. In his tour, he promised to sponsor training of the residents on the value of saving money and getting a loan to start businesses and take their children to school. Those who will be trained, will have an opportunity to join SHOFCO SACCO which has so far disbursed over Ksh100 million in form of loans to its members.
Through his efforts and international connections, Odede has turned a simple dream into an organization that has impacted over 2.5 million people who are now able to access health, education, water while women and youth have income-generating initiatives that have been put in place by SHOFCO.
At the Global Alliance for Communities, coalition of 150 proximate leaders stretching across the globe working on the world’s most pressing challenges, Odede is one of the leaders who have been pushing for vaccine equity while ensuring that the slum community is in front of the queue if and when the Covid-19 jab is available.
This is an area he is all too familiar with, having been a member of the National Covid-19 Emergency Response Fund board where he advised Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe how to fight the virus in informal settlements.
It is no wonder that Odede, co-author of the New York Times Bestselling book Find Me Unafraid: Love, Loss, and Hope in African Slum has and continues to win international awards for his work in eradicating poverty in Kenyan slums such as 2018 the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, 2014 People’s Choice Award for Outstanding Social Entrepreneur and Muhammed Ali Humanitarian Award among others.
He was also awarded a Head of State Commendation (HSC) by President Uhuru Kenyatta last year for his efforts in fighting and reducing the impact of Covid-19 in Kenyan slums.
