"The community welcomes us. They know we are there to help."

Senior Lecturer Mungai Mutonya grew up in rural Kenya, where individuals are obliged, and always happy to share, skills and resources with community members who are less endowed. Seeking to emulate his parents, who supplied water and electricity to their whole village for free after obtaining a generator, Dr. Mutonya attempts to share this sense of community through the Summer in Kenya program he has been running since 2000.

Alongside their academics, his students organize school libraries, work in rehabilitation centers for street children, donate school supplies, and clean up blighted areas.

The Gephardt Institute is working with Dr. Mutonya to implement a program for his Swahili students so that they reach out to African refugees newly arrived in St. Louis.