One of Africa’s best known community organisers and social entrepreneurs Kennedy Odede is our #OSGMCM.
He is a New York Times best-selling author and the Co-Chair of the Youth Panel for the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity.
He was raised in Kibera, the largest urban slum in Africa, where he experienced the devastating realities of life in extreme poverty. Still, he dreamed about changing his community and he did.
While working at a factory in 2004, Kennedy saved 20 cents, purchased a soccer ball, and started the Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) movement. Driven by the innovation and entrepreneurial spirits of the people of Kibera, SHOFCO became the largest grassroots organization in the slum.
Although he was entirely informally educated, Kennedy received a full-scholarship to Wesleyan University, becoming one of Kibera’s first to receive an education from an American liberal arts institution. He graduated in 2012 as the Commencement Speaker and with honors in Sociology.
Kennedy was awarded the 2010 Echoing Green Fellowship, which is given to the world’s top emerging social entrepreneurs. He won the 2010 Dell Social Innovation Competition, wrote two Op-Eds that appeared in the New York Times, was named Forbes “30 under 30 list” for top Social Entrepreneurs in 2014. He is also a member of the Clinton Global Initiative.
Kennedy who speaks six languages, is a senior fellow with Humanity in Action, and an Aspen Institute New Voices Fellow. He splits his time between Nairobi and New York City, he is married to Jessica a white lady who got involved in his dream. They won a grant from Newman’s Own Foundation and built Kibera School for Girls to fufill their dream to offer tuition-free education to girls and protect girls from the streets.
He was named amongst Business Daily’s Top 40 Men Under 40 Kenya, 2014, he also won the UN Association of Young Professionals for International Cooperation Award for Innovation in Africa, 2011 and several others.
We celebrate Kennedy Odede as our man crush Monday.