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Find me unafraid : love, loss, and hope in an African slum / Kennedy Odede and Jessica Posner.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, NY : Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2015]Copyright date: ©2015Edition: First editionDescription: xiv, 335 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0062292854
  • 9780062292858
Subject(s): Summary: An American volunteer and a former African street youth recount their romantic relationship, his pursuit of a college education, and their founding of the first tuition-free school for underprivileged girls in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya.
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Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library NonFiction 967.6204 O23 Available 33111008138287
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"Kennedy is living proof that individuals can lead themselves, and their communities, out of poverty." -Salma Hayek Pinault, Time 100

Find Me Unafraid tells the uncommon love story between two uncommon people whose collaboration sparked a successful movement to transform the lives of vulnerable girls and the urban poor. With a Foreword by Nicholas Kristof.

This is the story of two young people from completely different worlds: Kennedy Odede from Kibera, the largest slum in Africa, and Jessica Posner from Denver, Colorado. Kennedy foraged for food, lived on the street, and taught himself to read with old newspapers. When an American volunteer gave him the work of Mandela, Garvey, and King, teenaged Kennedy decided he was going to change his life and his community. He bought a soccer ball and started a youth empowerment group he called Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO). Then in 2007, Wesleyan undergraduate Jessica Posner spent a semester abroad in Kenya working with SHOFCO. Breaking all convention, she decided to live in Kibera with Kennedy, and they fell in love.Their connection persisted, and Jessica helped Kennedy to escape political violence and fulfill his lifelong dream of an education, at Wesleyan University.

The alchemy of their remarkable union has drawn the support of community members and celebrities alike--The Clintons, Mia Farrow, and Nicholas Kristof are among their fans--and their work has changed the lives of many of Kibera's most vulnerable population: its girls. Jess and Kennedy founded Kibera's first tuition-free school for girls, a large, bright blue building, which stands as a bastion of hope in what once felt like a hopeless place. But Jessica and Kennedy are just getting started--they have expanded their model to connect essential services like health care, clean water, and economic empowerment programs. They've opened an identical project in Mathare, Kenya's second largest slum, and intend to expand their remarkably successful program for change.

Ultimately this is a love story about a fight against poverty and hopelessness, the transformation made possible by a true love, and the power of young people to have a deep impact on the world.

An American volunteer and a former African street youth recount their romantic relationship, his pursuit of a college education, and their founding of the first tuition-free school for underprivileged girls in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya.

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