Find Me Unafraid

Starred review from June 22, 2015
This riveting memoir takes place primarily in Kibera, one of Kenya’s worst slums (which range in population from 170,000 to 1 million), and the authors narrate in alternating chapters. Odede, a community organizer in his early 20s, grew up in Kibera, and tells of his childhood of poverty, abuse, and struggle; Posner, a privileged, 20-year-old Wesleyan University student on a semester abroad project, arrived in 2007 hoping to help out with a theater group that Odede runs. Wanting an authentic experience, Posner moves in with Odede in the slum; there the eyes of the Denver-raised American are opened to another world, and she begins to fall under the spell of the charismatic, courageous young man who founded the nonprofit community organization Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) and is known unofficially throughout Kibera as “Mayor.” Before long, Odede’s dream of building a school for girls (many of whom have been abused and/or raped) is put into motion, and with Posner’s help, grants are secured to bring this dream, and others, to life. Self-taught on the writings and work of Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela, Odede is determined to rise above violence and poverty and help his neighbors in the process; in Posner he finds the perfect partner for his quest. Suspenseful and absorbing, this true story of a man and a woman from two different worlds reveals how dramatically circumstances can change.

July 1, 2015
An impassioned tale of how an unusual Kenyan NGO became globally galvanized by the romance between its embattled Nairobi director and a resolute young Wesleyan University student. Hailing from the Kibera slums and facing enormous obstacles, Odede managed to start the Shining Hope for Communities program, offering support to a community in crisis. Posner, an American student from a well-off Denver family, in turn became the COO of the program. The two alternate telling this uplifting and courageous story of how they met and fell in love. Odede is truly a survivor of the worst kind of marginalization of the invisible poor in the Kibera slum ("survival was improbable"). Born to an unmarried teenage woman (a breech birth, no less, one of the many miracles in his life), Odede eventually ran away from home at age 10 after being unable to stand any more abuse at the hands of his stepfather. Years of street life, theft, and drugs drove him to seek help from the white missionaries, and he eventually received the funds for an education. Posner arrived at the SHOFCO office for a Wesleyan internship in 2007, determined to brave the appalling living conditions of the slum (open sewers, rats and other vermin, scant water, complete lack of privacy) and cohabitate with Odede in disarming chastity. The authors tell a moving love story that crosses a chasm of different cultural beliefs and expectations, culminating in Odede's refuge at Wesleyan with a full scholarship. He had to flee his country after nearly being murdered by ethnic-driven gang violence following the rigged election of President Mwai Kibaki. Aside from the authors' developing romance, what is so impressive is Odede's commitment to the empowerment of young women after seeing so many rapes, violence, and indignities inflicted on the women in his own family. A well-wrought, inspiring tale of "change and justice" in a part of the world where they are often sorely lacking.

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Starred review from September 15, 2015
In 2007, Wesleyan theater student Posner traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, to spend a semester abroad. She reached out to young community leader Odede, who founded Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) as a safe haven for the children of Kibera, the perilous slum Kennedy grew up in. Jessica boldly asked Kennedy if she could stay in his small house in Kibera with him while she volunteered with SHOFCO's theater group. Romance blossomed between the two, and when Jessica went back to Wesleyan, she encouraged Kennedy to apply for a scholarship to go to school in America after political and tribal unrest jeopardized his life. Kennedy's studies paved the way for him and Jessica to return to Kibera with a plan to open up a school for the girls of Kibera, who are at high risk for rape and domestic violence. Initially told in alternating chapters in which Kennedy recounts a childhood fraught with danger, hunger, and loss, and Jessica shares her reactions to Kibera and the early days of their romance, their narratives intertwine as their plans for the school take off. It's exciting and inspiring to see how much Kennedy and Jessica are able to accomplish, and how many lives they're changing for the better with SHOFCO, which started with Kennedy's purchase of a twenty-cent soccer ball.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)