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Kenya Board Member Earns Graduate Degree
Salim Mohamed, a member of the GEF Kenya Board of Advisors, recently earned a Master’s Degree in International Development and Management.
GEF Staffer on Loan to Kenya Program
Global Education Fund program officer Suzanne Mieko Thomson is spending a year in Nairobi.
Kenya Board Member Earns Graduate Degree
Salim Mohamed, a member of the GEF Kenya Board of Advisors, recently earned a Master’s Degree in International Development and Management. Behind this distinction is a remarkable story.
Mohamed is an orphan who grew up near, and later lived in Kibera, one of the largest, sprawling slums in the world — with over one million people, half of them children, in Nairobi, Kenya.
Faced with the barriers Mohamed has endured, most people with no college or even a high school education would have not dared to dream, nevertheless dream big. Not Mohamed.
With a high school certificate and no undergraduate degree or diploma certificate but hard earned practical experience and leadership skills, he enrolled in a graduate program at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. He graduated with a master’s degree.
Mohamed is modest, saying he owes everything to the communities he worked with which taught him humility and values he could have never acquired at school.
“There are always alternatives in life. I took the alternative of not playing soccer and ended up spending a lot of time on leadership. There is need for young people to give back in terms of knowledge. Every young person is a change-maker.”
Today, Mohamed is mentoring young people to achieve their dreams. He encourages them to never give up, even when things look bad. Global Education Fund is proud to have Mohamed as a friend and colleague, along with other local leaders, in support of our work for children in Kenya.
GEF Staffer on Loan to Kenya Program
Global Education Fund program officer Suzanne Mieko Thomson is spending a year in Nairobi, supporting the Global Education Fund scholarship, leadership and literacy programs and working closely with the GEF Kenya Board of Advisors. She is helping us stay true to our value of listening to local leaders and building our programs through local partners. She is also becoming well-grounded in Kenya, its people, and culture, and having the opportunity to work with Kenyans to develop our programs on the ground. A mutually rewarding exchange!
