Graduation
On May 30, 2009 the Jim Karaffa Business Academy for Women celebrated the graduation of its first class of 19 women at the AMREF House in Nairobi, Kenya. Several distinguished guests living in Nairobi attended including the Honorable Millie Odhiambo, Nominated Member of the Kenyan Parliament, Dr. Nancy Cabelus, US Embassy for Women's Justice and Empowerment Initiative, and Mr. Simon Kamau, director of a high profile microfinance fund.
Eight guests from Notre Dame also travelled from the U.S. to attend the graduation including honored guest, Jill Bodensteiner, Esq. Associate Vice President of General Counsel Notre Dame. In her address to the graduates Bodensteiner remarked, “By completing this academy you have shown many women the way by saying, ‘if she can do it. I can do it.’ By completing this academy you have said thank you to those who believed in you. By completing this academy you are helping to make your community a better place.”
The Jim Karaffa Business Academy for Women, founded as a collaborative vision between social worker Edel Quinn Odongo and the late Fr. Jim Karaffa, CSC, is a revolutionary business academy that provides microloans and holistic training in business and personal topics to empower women as leaders of their families and the community.