In an article that appeared in the Aug. 16 edition of the Hartford Courant, Bethe Dufresne and Marcel Dufresne described the joint efforts of Kenya native Kennedy Odede and the group he discovered during an Internet search, American Friends of Kenya:A
Amid the most desperate poverty in Kenya's largest slum [Kibera], where prostitution for girls often comes with or even precedes puberty, Odede had created a youth-based community center and was offering services for women and children with HIV/AIDS. He had made a difference, a few foes and a lot of friends.The school, which is scheduled to open Aug. 20, is free for all students -- though the Courant article notes that "parents are required to pay with their own involvement."
But time was running out for the women and children, and Odede was running out of ideas. So he entered a computer search for "Kenya," adding words like "aid" or "service" or "charity," and eventually clicked on a Connecticut-based group called American Friends of Kenya.
Although the group was then only a year old, founding director Emely Silver of Norwich was used to receiving, and often rejecting, plaintive pleas for help from Kenyans. ... Odede, she recalls, "was the first one who didn't ask for money." He wanted advice about how to manage his projects in the slums.
"Teach me," he wrote to Silver, who was immediately smitten.
Posted By: Aspen/CRC
