Meet 2010 Do Something Award Winner Jessica Posner

A study-abroad program in Nairobi opened Jessica’s eyes to the devastating effects of the sex slave industry. While there, Jessica learned that 66% of girls in Kibera (the largest slum in Africa) trade sex for food as early as age six, and only 8% of women in Kibera ever attend school. Jessica co-founded Shining Hope for Communities to combat gender inequity and poverty in Kibera. Through the Kibera School for Girls, the first free school in Kibera, and the Shining Community Center, Jessica has helped over 5,700 residents gain education and employment.

Jessica took a moment to answer questions.

DoSomething.org: What person or experience sticks with you from the beginning of the process?

JP: I became friends with a seventeen-year old Cathy Majuma. She wanted to learn about the world, and through hard work she was finally able to get a sponsor to pay her tuition fees for a local school. But soon after she began classes her mother burned her belongings, angry that she was not doing enough housework. She moved in with her father, who abused and impregnated her. Turned out on the streets, Cathy turned to prostitution for survival. I met Cathy while working on a theater project in Kibera and we quickly became friends. One day, Cathy came to me and told me she had found a lump in her breast but was unable to afford medical care, as she could not even feed her infant son. After our talk, I found a doctor willing to help, but I never saw Cathy again. She disappeared, and I learned one of Kibera’s most harsh lessons: there is such a thing as too late.

DS: How did you feel when you first learned of the problem you’re addressing?

JP: No statistic truly captures the severity of Kibera’s human crisis. In the fall of 2007, I witnessed the devastation in Kibera firsthand. I worked with SHOFCO, a youth organization in Kibera, to write and perform a play about the realities of extreme poverty. I wanted to show the group that I believed in them and in our project, so I told SHOFCO’s director that I wanted to move into the slum. He said no, that I wouldn’t survive without a toilet or running water. I took his words as a challenge and moved into Kibera—becoming the only outsider to live inside the slum. Days in Kibera, Africa’s largest slum, have a frenzied pace, and each day I lived there I could feel the intense daily struggles of Kibera’s 1.5 million residents to simply survive.

DS: How do you feel about it now?

JP: Even in Kibera there are moments where time holds still long enough for everyone to acknowledge a miracle. August 18th, 2009 was one such day: the day we dedicated the Kibera School for Girls, along with the community, demonstrating a collective belief in the power of hope. As I looked at our students on the day of the dedication I hoped that their fates would be different than Cathy’s and many of my other friends. However, part of me knew that without more than a school, without health care, without proper nutrition and sanitation, our students were still at tremendous risk. I then also founded The Shining Hope Community Center to provide education, employment and desperately needed services. I know now that we still have a long way to go, but that the change I’ve led in partnership with the community is a hopeful sign for the possibilities of the future.

DS: Who is your inspiration to keep going?

JP: I am always inspired by Kennedy Odede, the co-founder of Shining Hope for Communities. Kennedy was born and raised in Kibera. The oldest in a poor family of eight, Kennedy sold peanuts on the road starting at age seven to put himself and siblings through school. Despite his efforts, two of his sisters had to drop out after becoming teenage mothers—one impregnated as the result of a gang rape. Kennedy always dreamed of making a difference. The first time he ever had extra money, twenty cents in 2005, he bought a soccer ball and started SHOFCO, the first youth group in Kibera founded and run by slum residents that worked with 3,000+ people on AIDS education, female empowerment, microfinance, sanitation, and health. I met Kennedy in the fall of 2007 when we worked together on a theatre project with young people in Kibera. Three days after I left Kenya, the country erupted in horrific political violence and Kennedy was forced to flee. Kennedy had always dreamed of a college education, but never thought this would become a reality because he earned less than $1 per day. I helped facilitate Kennedy’s application to Wesleyan University—where he is now a sophomore. Working with Kennedy reminds me of the importance of deeply rooted community connections. Kennedy inspires me because he fought against all odds to create remarkable change in both his community and his own life—I can only hope to do the same.

DS: What was the most difficult roadblock you faced when you tried to start your project?

JP: Building a grassroots, holistic empowerment and poverty eradication program from the ground-up is a daunting task for anyone. As a twenty-two year old college senior many people looked at me with incredulity when I talked about building the school and other technologically and organizationally sophisticated projects. I learned early on about the importance of involving experts in the field, and as time went on I earned credibility from reputable professionals and community members alike.

DS: What about when you were trying to grow your project?

JP: In Kibera the need is staggering---as 1.5 million people live inside the slum without access to education or services. One of our challenges is to grow our project to serve as many residents as possible while ensuring that the quality of our program remains exceptionally high.

DS: What’s been the biggest lesson throughout the process?

JP: Working in Kibera for the past three years I’ve learned to take nothing for granted: education, health, or the belief that dreams can come true.

DS: What has surprised you the most about the journey that has taken you here today?

JP: I’ve been both surprised and amazed at what we’ve been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time. I’ve seen the power and possibilities for transformation created when an entire community dedicates itself to making change together.

DS: What advice do you have for other kids who are having a tough time getting their ideas off the ground?

JP: The world is a place filled with great needs. One challenge that anyone trying to make a contribution faces is to ensure that in our efforts to make the world a better place, we don’t just come into any community sure that we have the answers. By collaborating with and empowering a community to solve their own problems I believe that kids all over the world can bring sustainable, systemic change to pass.

DS: If you could have done one thing differently based on what you know now, what would it be? Why?

JP: Looking back five years ago, I wish I had known more about the issues women and girls face so that I might have started my work then---increasing the impact that we’ve already had in a very short period of time and making it so that many people would not have been forced to suffer unnecessarily.

DS: What’s next for your project?

JP: In the upcoming year, we will continue to expand the Kibera School for Girls, adding a new class of girls and an additional teacher, for a total of 60 students in pre-K to 2nd grade. Eventually, we will expand to 370 students going up to eighth grade. The school will continue to serve the neediest students—providing them with nutrition and a superior education preparing them for a life outside of the slum. I am also working to significantly expand the Shining Hope Community Center to include additional desperately needed services such as more computers, books, and toilets. By the end of next year, the center will serve approximately 11,270 community members through adult literacy classes, our sustainable gardening initiative, and our microfinance program. Right now we’re working on adding the Johanna Justin-Jinich Memorial Clinic of Kibera—the first and only accessible community clinic in Kibera that will specialize in women’s health. We’re also working to add income generating initiatives that will also provide direly needed services like clean water. This income will be reinvested in education, health, and food for families in the community. Eventually, we hope to replicate our model to other communities like Kibera, linking tuition-free schools for girls to accessible services for all in order to combat gender inequality and extreme poverty.