About Shining Hope

Who We Are

Shining Hope for Communities is a 501(c)3 non-profit founded in 2009 by Executive Director Kennedy Odede and Managing Director Jessica Posner. The organization is composed of an extremely diverse and experienced coalition of local community members, university students, and international business and education experts. Kennedy is a current student at Wesleyan University, and has combined his lived experience of 23 years as a community organizer in Kibera with his elite college education to create an organization that is truly one of a kind. All of Shining Hope for Communities’ work is overseen by a local community leadership committee in Kibera and advised by a Board of Directors in the United States composed of university professors, leading CEOs, and human rights experts. Kennedy and Jessica were recently named 2010 Echoing Green Fellows, have received support for their work from The Newman’s Own Foundation, and won the international 2010 Dell Social Innovation Competition.  Jessica was recently recognized as the nation’s “Top World Changer 25 and Under” by Do Something and VH1.

What We Do

We combat intergenerational cycles of poverty and gender inequality by linking tuition-free schools for girls to essential social services in Kenya's Kibera slum through a holistic, community-driven approach. By concretely linking essential health and economic services to a school for girls, we demonstrate that benefiting women benefits the whole community, cultivating a community ethos that makes women respected members of society.