Victor Odhiambo

Victor was born and raised in Kibera slum. Kibera is the second largest urban slum in Africa with a population of over 250,000 people. Growing up, he always had the zeal and passion to support my community. Kibera being an informal settlement, most residents do not have access to clean water, sanitation facilities and other basic needs. It estimated that a family of 5 in Kibera slum live under $1.25 a day, as result most families cannot afford to send their children to school or afford three meals a day. This situation has resulted to high cases of crime, unemployment, drug abuse and other negative vices. He was lucky to attend school because of someone’s kindness.

“Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.”–Princess Diana.

In 2014, after graduating from college, Victor decided to take a bold step and started a non-profit organization called Garden of Hope Foundation to respond to the needs of youth, children, women and girls in my community. Since then, Garden of Hope Foundation has impacted the lives of over 20,000 people in 5 counties in Kenya through mentorship, leadership and entrepreneurship programs. As a Global Thinkers mentee, he was able to develop some clear goals on how he might support vulnerable women and girls in my community. He was paired with a great mentor, Roula Douglas. Their project currently supports 150 women and girls per year through leadership, economic empowerment and provision of menstrual products to needy girls.

Victor would like to challenge everyone to show some kindness. No act of kindness directed from the heart is to small. Go out and be kind..

Victor Odhiambo's mentor is Roula A. Douglas.

Note: Victor graduated from the mentoring programme in 2017 and he was 27 at the time.