My Road to Kenya

More than thirty years ago, Basilian priest Charles Lavery, president of St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York, asked businessman Jack O’Leary to assist in setting up a fund to help pay tuition for Kenyan priests to study at the College while experiencing American democracy in action.
President Lavery believed that providing the opportunity for Kenyan priests to earn their advanced degrees while living in America would better prepare them for roles in leadership when they returned to their own country. This, he believed, could help stem the tide of advancing communism in Africa. Somalia and Ethiopia had already fallen to communism, and neighboring Kenya was the next country at risk.
In the years since the scholarship program was established, more than forty Kenyan priests have graduated from Fisher thanks to the kindness extended to them by the Basilian fathers and St. John Fisher College, as well as individuals in Rochester, New York.
Today, all but one scholarship recipient has returned to live and work in Kenya. Another priest who studied at The College at Brockport, State University of New York, Father George Okoth, is a Captain in the US military, working as a chaplain. He has served one tour of duty in Iraq and one tour in Germany. Recently he left for Afghanistan where he will serve American men and women in the military.
In 1993, Jack took public his company in Upstate New York. He then sold it in 1997. Shortly thereafter he visited Kenya. Since then, much of the proceeds from the sale of his company have gone to help fund various projects there. Jack has built and/or refurbished hospitals, clinics, dispensaries, churches and schools. He also has built an orphanage for handicapped children and even helped to build a working tea farm.
But his work is not yet done. He recently completed plans to build more orphanages to provide homes for some of the more than one-million orphans living in danger and hunger on the streets of cities, towns and villages throughout the country. Today in Eastern Africa more children have been orphaned than in all of World War I and World War II combined. Today their enemy is not bullets or bombs; today their enemy is the invisible killer AIDS.
His travels in Kenya have led Jack across formidable landscapes to face endless challenges. It also brought him to some of the most hospitable, loving, and friendly people that he has ever known. His adventures also have meant the beginning of many cherished memories and lifelong friendships.
As a result of his work on behalf of the people of Kenya, Jack has received an education of his own — an education in African corruption. He has developed the skill and expertise that has served him well in meeting the challenges of “doing business” with corrupt port authority employees, government officials, and others who would block the delivery of life-saving supplies in order to further their own financial gains.
He has accomplished many of his goals — feeding the hungry, rebuilding hospitals and clinics, and providing medical supplies to help heal the sick. In one area of the country known as Bahati, the infant mortality rate dropped by 80 percent as a result of building just one clinic. Through it all Jack never cursed the darkness; instead he chose to light a candle that continues to shine brightly, bringing hope to the hearts of a spirited and loving people.
Although he never intended to become so intimately involved in the lives of his African friends, he has acquired a deep desire to make a difference in their lives and the lives of others. Herein Jack shares in his own words his amazing Kenyan journey.