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Find Me Unafraid: Love, Loss, and Hope in an African Slum Audiobook
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Publisher Description
Find Me Unafraid tells the uncommon love story between two uncommon people whose collaboration sparked a successful movement to transform the lives of vulnerable girls and the urban poor. With a Foreword by Nicholas Kristof.
This is the story of two young people from completely different worlds: Kennedy Odede from Kibera, the largest slum in Africa, and Jessica Posner from Denver, Colorado. Kennedy foraged for food, lived on the street, and taught himself to read with old newspapers. When an American volunteer gave him the work of Mandela, Garvey, and King, teenaged Kennedy decided he was going to change his life and his community. He bought a soccer ball and started a youth empowerment group he called Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO). Then in 2007, Wesleyan undergraduate Jessica Posner spent a semester abroad in Kenya working with SHOFCO. Breaking all convention, she decided to live in Kibera with Kennedy, and they fell in love.Their connection persisted, and Jessica helped Kennedy to escape political violence and fulfill his lifelong dream of an education, at Wesleyan University.
The alchemy of their remarkable union has drawn the support of community members and celebrities alike—The Clintons, Mia Farrow, and Nicholas Kristof are among their fans—and their work has changed the lives of many of Kibera’s most vulnerable population: its girls. Jess and Kennedy founded Kibera’s first tuition-free school for girls, a large, bright blue building, which stands as a bastion of hope in what once felt like a hopeless place. But Jessica and Kennedy are just getting started—they have expanded their model to connect essential services like health care, clean water, and economic empowerment programs. They’ve opened an identical project in Mathare, Kenya’s second largest slum, and intend to expand their remarkably successful program for change.
Ultimately this is a love story about a fight against poverty and hopelessness, the transformation made possible by a true love, and the power of young people to have a deep impact on the world.
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“This inspiring story…is fittingly narrated with elegance and respect. The stark difference between Korey Jackson’s voicing of Kennedy Odede and Mandy Siegfried’s reading of Jessica Posner underscores the drastically disparate worlds from which the authors originate. Jackson’s…convincing portrayal is funny and heartwarming as well as startling when listeners hear how America appears to an outsider. A wonderful production worthy of listening to multiple times. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
— AudioFile
Quotes
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“Tells the story of hundreds of girls flourishing—and by example, bringing their communities along with them—all because Jessica and Kennedy, two people from different lives, believed that every girl matters. This book offers the greatest of all gifts—hope.”
— Gloria Steinem, #1 New York Times bestselling author -
“Find Me Unafraid is an extraordinary book, courageously honest about their challenges, their victories, their losses and their achingly beautiful love.”
— Chelsea Clinton -
“Riveting…Suspenseful and absorbing.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review) -
“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.”
— Booklist (starred review) -
“A well-wrought, inspiring tale of ‘change and justice’ in a part of the world where they are often sorely lacking.”
— Kirkus Reviews
Awards
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Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award
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A New York Times bestseller
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About the Authors
Kennedy Odede is one of Africa’s best-known community organizers and social entrepreneurs. In May 2012 Kennedy was the class commencement speaker at his graduation from Wesleyan University and among the first from Kibera to get a degree from an elite American university.
Jessica Posner is the cofounder and chief operating officer of Shining Hope for Communities. She is a nationally recognized social entrepreneur and activist, won the 2010 Do Something Award, and was named “America’s top-world changer 25 and under” live on VH1. Posner is also a recipient of the prestigious Echoing Green Fellowship.
About the Narrators
P. J. Ochlan is an Audie Award–winning, multiple Earphones Award–winning, and Voice Arts Award–nominated narrator of hundreds of audiobooks. His acting career spans more than thirty years and has also included Broadway, the New York Shakespeare Festival under Joseph Papp, critically acclaimed feature films, and television series regular roles.
Korey Jackson, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, is an actor, known for his roles in the films 37, Life Itself, and Anesthesia. He earned his MFA in acting from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Mandy Siegfried has worked at theaters in New York, on and off Broadway, and around the country. Her film work includes School of Rock, Two Weeks Notice, Winter Passing, Liberty Maine, The Out-of-Towners, and St. Andrew’s Girls.