By Fredrick Odiero
Benson Okello, a US-based philanthropist, is living the spirit of giving to the less fortunate.
Brought up in poverty himself, he says he is giving back to fulfill a promise he made to himself as a child.
After trying his hand in the real estate world upon completing college, Okello went through the murky waters of the unknown and later landed in the United States.
While there, he made contacts and found new friends who would later be of immense importance in his quest to be like a philanthropist, the likes of Bill Gates and others across the globe.
Okello started by donating sanitary pads and books to Ahonjo Primary School in Rapogi, Migori County, where he went to school.
He continued with the activities and soon started the Silvan Okello Foundation (SOF), which he notes is at its pilot stage.
Okello, who is a diminutive fellow, says that the girl child has for many years been subjected to utter neglect and both social and cultural prejudices.
He says even his own sisters did not go far with education due to the same inhibitions.
Okello, who has made Albany, New York in the United States his base of operation, says he intends to expand his activities far and wide when more funds become available courtesy of partners and friends abroad.
The now community-based worker says that most of his operations revolve around church work where many people have seen the need to help the less fortunate in society.
Okello, who was born in 1985 to a polygamous family, says that he decided to start such a project in his own home since charity begins there.
He has been concentrating on Ahonjo Primary School, which has a population of slightly over 400.
Okello says one of the biggest challenges he faces is that people want direct assistance other than the communal one.
He says that he has been sponsoring examinations in the village where he is also a motivational speaker.
Okello told Education News that he believes in encouraging girls and other young people to work hard in order to make it in life.
“What I am doing now is premised on the spirit of giving back to the community,” he said.
He revealed that he personally went to school through the assistance of the community and is now duty bound to give back.
Okello dismisses the notion that one must be employed upon completion of college or high school, noting that one can be self-employed and later create jobs in the society.
He went to Ahonjo Primary School and later to Mori High School before proceeding to the Kenya Institute of Management where he pursued procurement and purchasing.
Okello later went to the Kenya College of Accountancy where he majored in accounting and management.
The philanthropist is one of the many people who do not believe in white collar jobs.
He intends to use soccer clubs in Migori to propagate some of his policies such as combating drugs and reckless lives among the youth.
Okello advised young people not allow themselves to be used by politicians.
He told them that leaders will always use and later dump them.
