Student mentors talk about connecting communities in Kenya

When Chris Leibfried got the opportunity to take an early retirement from his work at Xerox, he knew he wanted to do something to help people. He wasn’t exactly sure what that would mean until he met Harmon Parker while taking a civil engineering course at UB.

Parker is the founder of Bridging the Gap Africa, an organization that builds walking bridges for communities in Kenya where people often drown trying to cross rivers with dangerous currents. In 2010, Parker was named a CNN Hero for his efforts.

Since meeting Parker, and with the help of Jerome O’Connor, executive director of UB’s Institute of Bridge Engineering, Lebfried has become a mentor to UB students looking to organize and help Bridging the Gap Africa meet its goals through technical advising and fundraising efforts.

“To start with a design drawing and make it happen: That’s why I wanted to do this,” Leibfried told a UB audience on Friday in Davis Hall, when he and his wife, Beth, discussed their experience working with locals in Kitale, Kenya, on the Peace Bridge, Bridging the Gap’s first suspension bridge. “This is the first time we’ve done something good with our traveling,” he said.

“Most Kenyan people who live out in the countryside can’t swim. We take it for granted,” Beth Leibfried said. Walking bridges provide safer and easier passage between villages, allowing for economic development, as well as access to health care and education.

The Peace Bridge is still under construction, and O’Connor estimates it will cost about $30,000 to build. It represents a shift on the part of Bridging the Gap toward more sophisticated engineering than the suspended bridges the organization has built for many years. Suspended bridges resemble the chasm-crossing footbridges one might associate with Indiana Jones, while the 45-meter Peace Bridge in Kitale will look more like its namesake here in Buffalo.

The Leibfrieds described their tactics for living with fewer Western comforts, their interactions with people from nearby villages, and the technical and practical details of the work they did on the bridge itself.

“Everybody in the local villages knew we were coming and so when we showed up, it was like we were rock stars,” Chris Leibfried said. “There was never any attitude of ‘Who are these rich people?’ They were very engaging and appreciative.”

Harsher realities became evident at several points, as the Leibfreids became aware of the poor state of the village’s water supply, as well as the safety measures taken at shopping malls following the terrorist attack at the Westgate shopping mall in 2013, just a few blocks from Parker’s home in Nairobi.

“Kenya is a dangerous place and a lot of organizations have pulled their people out of there,” Chris Leibfried said. “But you’re not going to get this kind of experience from a travel show.”

“You can live afraid, or you can go for it,” Beth Leibfried said, explaining their decision.

Wil Nagengast, a senior civil engineering major, is among a number of students working with UB Bridging the Gap Africa Partners who have made the work the subject of their senior capstone projects.

“I’d like to work in private industry and also do work in philanthropy.” Nagengast said. “I’m trying to get in a position where I can work for a company that finds it acceptable that I use my time in that way.”