Kennedy is one of Africa’s best- known community organizers and social entrepreneurs. For twenty-three years Kennedy lived in the Kibera Slum, the largest slum in Africa, where he experienced the devastating realities of life in extreme poverty first hand. The oldest of eight children, he became a street-child at the age of ten. Still, he …
Election campaign season was the only time we ate rice in my childhood in Nairobi. My mother would come back to our home in Kibera carrying a small portion of rice, a handout from a politician. My siblings and I would gather, waiting for the moment when the water would boil. In Kibera, we always …
When Kennedy Odede was a kid, he lived on the streets of a slum in Kenya. He'd grown up in tough circumstances. His stepfather was violent. There wasn't enough food to go around. He wasn't sent to school. A friend convinced him he'd do better out on his own. He'd have his freedom, he'd be …
The TEDWomen 2016 conference takes place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, where we'll explore how time and attention shape our lives. It's about time… Learn more >
Poverty feeds terrorism by eroding a basic human need: the need to belong. This may seem like an unlikely place to begin a conversation on terrorism, but after growing up in one of Africa’s largest urban slums for most of my life, I am certain that nurturing a sense of belonging in young people through economic …