Connecticut veteran helps children in slums in Kenya

From Connecticut to Kenya, fundraising is changing lives. It started when a local veteran made a trip to the African country in December. Now one act of kindness has evolved, and has the potential to impact hundreds of children living in Africa’s largest urban slum.

“One of the things that I'm always proud of is my submarine military service,” John Leahy, of Berlin, said. “I spent almost nine years defending our country, and spent almost a year of my life underwater, protecting our nation.”

While Leahy served the country, the veteran’s drive to make an impact extends beyond U.S. borders.

“These are very decorative sticks that I got from Kenya,” Leahy said, presenting a shepherd’s staff and other items he said he received from a tribal chief on one trip to Kenya.

For 20 years now, Leahy has collaborated with various nonprofit organizations in Africa, and traveled to several countries.

His most recent trip in December brought Leahy to Kenya’s Capital City, Nairobi, where he toured the Kibera Slum. With approximately 600,000 people, it is the largest urban slum on the continent.

“If you take Hartford, West, Hartford, Enfield, Bloomfield, and Wethersfield, put them all together, put them in a slum, Kibera Slum is still bigger than all that,” Leahy said. “The magnitude of having over half a million people living in a slum, it's just unfathomable.”

During the tour, one sight struck a chord for Leahy.

“The thing that got me was the kids were playing with flat soccer balls, and it kind of broke my heart,” Leahy said. “It kind of reminded me of my own youth growing up in a housing project in New York City. It really brought me back to seeing the kids and my own youth, and wanting to help.”

So Leahy reached out to his tour guide, Erick Odok. A lifelong Kibera resident, Odock not only runs the tours, but also the nonprofit, Kibera Community Outreach Program.

“So I sent back $100, and he wind up giving out 12 soccer balls,” Leahy said.

Then, after Leahy donated money for some more sports equipment, Odok had a request. He asked Leahy if he would be willing to fund the education of some children.

“A very humble background made me very passionate about helping needy people, especially the children,” Odok said.

Leahy gave him a special gift to show his dedication.

“This is a submarine Groton coin, that the U.S. base puts out in Groton, Connecticut once a year. I take these around the world and give these out as my covenant for support,” Leahy said. “So I gave Erick one of these coins, which was very, very important. It shows my commitment to them, not only now, but in the future.”

Leahy said he was particularly moved to act when he learned the story of Esther, a 16-year-old girl living in the Kibera Slum, whose single mother could not afford to send her to school.

“The first picture I saw was Esther, who was in 11th grade. Her mother works in Kibera Slum, she makes $2 a day, and her mom needs to raise $150, which is an impossible task,” Leahy said. “So what's going to happen is you have a 16-year-old girl that's going to get taken out of school. If she doesn't stay in school, the chance of her breaking the poverty cycle is are very, very small.”

Leahy explains that it costs families in Kibera $150 for one year of high school education, and $50 for a year of primary school education.

So he mobilized his friends and family in Connecticut, with the goal of raising $1,000. The group exceeded that goal, raiding $1,500 to date.

“We were able to get 25 outfits, a couple dozen more soccer balls, but what I'm really excited about is we're able to fund six children's education for one year, which is very exciting, because that's the only way that they're really going to get out of poverty is through education,” Leahy said.

Beyond that, they have expanded their partnership to include Yvette Ondachi with Sinapis, a nonprofit that works to eradicate poverty by supporting entrepreneurship. They have trained more than 1,000 entrepreneurs.

“We equip them with skills, we give advice, we equip them with access to capital, basically, we address the biggest barriers that entrepreneurs face towards their success,” Ondachi said.

Now, funds that Leahy is raising are going to Sinapis, then directly to Kibera, where Odok and one other person will undergo a nine-week entrepreneurial training. Upon completion, they will share the skills they learned with youth in Kibera.

“Can you imagine a couple of hundreds of dollars or few hundreds of dollars put into the lives of two people over a nine week training can transform the lives directly? I would say approximately like 50,” Ondachi said. “But then the ripple effect, because that becomes like 1000 people possibly. So that is what the funding from Connecticut is doing.”

From education, to job training, to building business, these efforts aim to equip the next generation with the tools to overcome poverty: a domino effect that these trans-Atlantic partners hope will change futures.

“You have to start with one,” Leahy said. “You can be overwhelmed with basically, the need. The needs will cause you to cry at night, because there's just so much. But if you start with one, make a commitment, and get the resources, that's where the ripple effect occurs.”

Making a difference, from Connecticut to Kenya.