Kenyan international Johanna Omolo was recently featured in the 30-minute Cable News Network (CNN) programme African Voices Changemakers as he highlighted his journey from Dandora Slums and the positive impact he is doing in the community with his Johanna Omolo foundation. Omolo currently plies his trade in the Turkish second tier with Kocaelispor having spent more than 14 years in Europe joining Belgian outfit Cercle Sportif Visé back in 2007 and has been a mainstay in the Harambee Stars squad until recently. Not over until the fat lady sings.. @Erzurumspor 🔵⚪️🦅#believe#7finalstogo pic.twitter.com/Pk3DwosmTl— Johanna Omolo (@OmoloJohanna) April 12, 2021 The 32-year-old opened up on growing up in the slums and how hard it was to make a breakthrough in football as many people had formed a negative perception about Dandora. “I want to live in a world where every child can get an opportunity to show the skills or talent. We are in this together and you don’t have to go to Europe to be a professional, you can also do this back at home. Sports has taught me a lot, the values that sports teach us is powerful and I think this knowledge should go back to the community,””My childhood was challenging, seeing the nature of the environment we were living in, no one bothered to come to Dandora to look for talent, so it was challenging because there was also crime, drugs and organized crimes,” said Omolo in the documentary. Finally Football is Back!#60minsinthelegs#zultecercle#ballislife pic.twitter.com/77yV9XSALk— Johanna Omolo (@OmoloJohanna) July 5, 2020 The midfielder describes himself as a philanthropist with a passion to transform the community and a change maker.##NAJAVA_MECA_5977485##The former Cercle Brugge midfielder launched the Johanna Omolo foundation back in 2016 founded to create opportunities, hope and inspiration for underprivileged kids and has already bagged two awards.Period poverty is stopping girls from taking part in activities they love. Join us in the fight to end period poverty in the Kenya Women Premier League (KWFL) by supporting our campaign through your generous donation. #KeepTheDreamAlive pic.twitter.com/IkQT15jcn0— Johanna Omolo Foundation (@Omolofoundation) September 21, 2020 “I decided to have a foundation to try to help the kids in my community to have hope and help them show the world what they can do and also give them a platform to showcase their skill and God-given talent. We use sports to teach values and in education, we are trying to help with scholarships,”“One of the programs that we have is giving out sanitary towels, there is a need to help these girls stay in school because we realized that most of the girls stay home for some days in a month because of menstruation,” said Omolo. The dreadlocked midfielder concluded the documentary by saying that success is not measured by how much money you make but by how many lives you touch along the way. Omolo features for Kocaelispor in friendly loss
