We are proud to present our first guest blogger, Kennedy Odede, President & CEO, Shining Hope for Communities. Mr. Odede will be participating on the Envision Panel "The Role of Women in Alleviating Poverty and Hunger," taking place on Saturday, April 8th at 5:30PM.
To view the full schedule and to purchase tickets to Envision, please visit the official website.
And now, Mr. Odede:
I am very excited to speak at Envision next weekend. I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and my organization. My name is Kennedy Odede and I am the President & CEO of Shining Hope for Communities. I was born in the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya, the largest slum in Africa, and lived there for twenty-three years.
Growing up in Kibera, I watched my mother struggling to feed her 8 children, I watched my sister became pregnant at 16, I watched little girls forced to sell their bodies for food. I listened to my mother, to my sisters, to my fellow community members and I know firsthand what is needed to transform my community--and it begins with women and girls.
At Shining Hope for Communities I have developed an innovative, two-step model to combat gender inequality and extreme poverty. We link tuition-free schools for girls to accessible social services for all. In 2009 we built the slum's first free school for girls, which provides a superior education to Kibera’s brightest and most at-risk girls. The second step of our model provides the community-at-large with desperately needed social services adjacent to the school. The unique services we offer include sanitary eco- toilets, a library and cyber café, gardens and food security, gender violence support, microenterprise for HIV positive women, a youth center, access to water, business and literacy training, and hundreds of jobs. We also operate a community-run health clinic that focuses on primary care and women's health, serving 1,000+ residents every month.
Our concrete link between schools for girls and community services changes the value placed on women, because community members associate desperately needed services with an institution dedicated to girls’ education. We change attitudes while improving livelihoods of the whole community. By investing in health and economic success through a school for girls, we demonstrate that benefitting women benefits the whole community, cultivating a community ethos that makes women respected members of society.
To learn more, visit www.shininghopeforcommunities.org I look forward to talking more next weekend!
