Shofco's Odede wins Africa’s 2024 Outstanding Humanitarian Award

Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) Founder and CEO Dr. Kennedy Odede has been awarded the 2024 Outstanding Humanitarian Award by Top Charts Africa based in Nigeria.

The SHOFCO founder was recognized for his role in uplifting the lives of slum dwellers and vulnerable people across 40 counties in Kenya.

“The Outstanding Humanitarian award category celebrates an individual or organization that has made an exceptional contribution to humanitarian causes,” Top Charts Africa said during the award ceremony. 

Dr. Odede had been nominated alongside seven other individuals drawn across Africa among them being Osita Obidike of Rebuildx Africa (Liberia), Gerald Abila of Barefoot Law (Uganda), and Otto Orondaam of Slum2School (Nigeria).

Others were Olamilekan Agbeleshela of Laycon Cares Foundation (Nigeria), Somachi Chris Asoluka of Tony Elumelu Foundation (Nigeria), William Troost Ekong of Troost Ekong Foundation (Nigeria), and Tunde Onakoya of Chess in Slums (Nigeria).

“I'm truly humbled to be awarded the 2024 Outstanding Humanitarian Award by Top Charts Africa in West Africa. I dedicate this award to the communities we serve across Kenya at SHOFCO,” Dr Odede said after receiving the good news.

This recognition adds to Dr. Odede’s accolades having received both local and international awards, including TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2024, the 2023 TIME100 Impact Award Africa, Schwab Social Innovator of the Year 2022, and the East Africa Philanthropy Jury Award, among others.

He founded SHOFCO in 2004 with a soccer ball and Sh20 in Kibera slums in Nairobi and it has now expanded across 40 counties in Kenya, serving over six million people annually.

SHOFCO’s approach to community development is holistic, addressing multiple dimensions of poverty and inequality to create lasting change.

Its programs focus on education, healthcare, water and sanitation, economic empowerment, community mobilization, and youth development, all aimed at improving the well-being and opportunities of residents in urban slums and rural areas.

The organization has reached over one million youth through various causes, including entrepreneurship training, sports activities, TVET training, and job and internship placements in the past two years.

Under its education program, SHOFCO runs two schools, Kibera School for Girls and Mathare School for Girls, serving a student population of 580.

The oldest of eight children, Dr Odede experienced extreme poverty and violence and became a street boy aged 10 and later joined a gang.

Having struggled to access water in Kibera slums where clean and safe piped water was nonexistent, Odede prioritised its provision when he founded Shofco.

"We used to walk several kilometres to get water and most of the time, we would suffer waterborne diseases because the water we got was contaminated due to the underground pipes getting mixed up with raw sewage," he said in a past interview.

To reduce contamination, SHOFCO, under Odede’s leadership, introduced an aerial water piping system which currently serves over 250,000 residents of Kibera and Mathare slums in Nairobi.

The pipes are connected to 53 water kiosks, allowing residents to access the precious commodity quickly and consistently.

In 2022, SHOFCO’s community-driven model became a benchmark for global NGOs following a case study by Bridgespan Group, highlighting SHOFCO’s effective, community-driven approaches and lasting impact.

Dr. Odede is also a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum, an Obama Foundation Africa Leader, a USAID Advisory Board member and winner of the Mohammed Ali Humanitarian Award among other recognitions.

Odede is the co-author of the New York Times bestseller, 'Find Me Unafraid: Love, Loss and Hope in African Slum'.