Standing at the foot of a mountain, it can be hard to imagine the view from the top or, for that matter, how the journey there might shape you. Echoing Green specializes in supporting emerging leaders during those nascent, early steps, which makes it even more special when we can pause to celebrate how far they’ve come and the impact they’ve made.
That’s the case as we celebrate Echoing Green Fellow Kennedy Odede ‘10, recipient of the 2025 Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize by the United Nations. Given every five years to one woman and one man, this prestigious award recognizes outstanding service to humanity through reconciliation, social cohesion, and community development. As the co-founder and CEO of Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO)—the largest community and economic development organization in Kenya—Kennedy is one of Africa’s most esteemed social entrepreneurs and community organizers. He has been recognized by TIME, Forbes, the Obama Foundation, the Aspen Institute, and countless others. But he’ll be the first to tell you that that’s not where he started.
Kennedy was raised in Kenya’s Kibera—the largest slum in Africa. By age ten, he was living on the streets, scavenging to survive, losing friends to murder and suicide, and grappling with the trauma of the domestic violence he witnessed as a young child. Amid these horrific conditions, though, Kennedy also saw the resilience and power of his community. He recognized that, if community members and local organizations had decision-making power, the opportunities for impact could be transformational. Kennedy nurtured that hope with the writings of revered leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, Jr., which showed him the power of community-led change. In 2004, earning just one dollar per day at a factory, he saved 20 cents to buy a soccer ball. That ball, the crowds it drew in Kibera, and the community conversations it sparked after matches were how SHOFCO started.
Alongside his wife, Jessica Posner Odede ‘10, Kennedy built SHOFCO with an initial focus on combatting intergenerational poverty and gender inequality by linking tuition-free schools for girls with essential social services for the residents of Kibera. This bold idea, coupled with Kennedy’s deep roots in the community, earned them both places in our 2010 Fellowship cohort. At the time, their vision was just beginning to take root and offer a glimpse of the impact it could have.
“Echoing Green believed in us when few others did. Even in those early days, they understood the vision of SHOFCO and the impact a community organization like ours could make,” said Kennedy. “Every step of the journey, they have been there with the support and encouragement I needed to keep pushing for change in my community.”
Today, SHOFCO’s work spans education, health, economic mobility, and more. Its impact has reached more than 2.5 million individuals in 36 Kenyan counties. That includes 46,323 primary healthcare visits at SHOFCO hospitals and clinics, 14,216 students in schools connected with SHOFCO-supplied water, and more than 17,000 youth mentored in SHOFCO libraries. All of this extraordinary impact began with 20 cents and a soccer ball, and all of it was powered by community.
SHOFCO isn’t a success story in spite of Kennedy’s roots in Kibera. It’s a success because of them. In a community far too familiar with outsiders imposing supposed solutions, Kennedy offered hard-earned expertise that can only be gained through lived experience. He understood the value of it, of listening to others with it, and the opportunities that working together creates.
“Growing up, I learned I would accomplish little if I tried alone,” Kennedy wrote shortly after his Echoing Green Fellowship. “The real power surfaced when we could come together and focus on a cause.”
So, today we celebrate Kennedy not just for his profound accomplishments, but also for reminding us that our roots—no matter how humble —can be a source of power. Embrace them, lean on them, and draw strength from them during the daunting moments on that journey up the mountain. In Kennedy’s own words: “I am the roots of the grass: rooted in the community of my childhood, as my spirit springs up to meet any challenge or call to action that faces me in the present day.”
