Harmon Parker was building a school for a remote village in Kenya in the mid ’90s when the director of a non-governmental organization came to him and his partner with a request.
“‘I know you are wafundi [Swahili for ‘builders’],’” Parker recalls. The director told them that while his group was building irrigation structures for a remote tribe, he wanted to know if Parker could build a bridge.
That first bridge was built in 1996. “I thought it would be a one-off,” says Parker. “But then the NGO asked if we could build another one.”
The projects advanced from there. Parker, who speaks Swahili, heard stories of many other villages cut off by floods and unable to cross the river—children dying because their mothers could not reach the clinic on the other side and teachers being killed by crocodiles as they tried to lead students across a river on foot. In 2000, “I decided I was going to give my life to building bridges” for the many remote communities that need them.
He founded Bridging the Gap Africa, a non-profit that last year built 11 bridges. This year it plans to build 13, he says, and expand from Kenya to other parts of Africa. “We’re trying to scale up. The need is great and the need is now,” he says. “We’re scratching the surface and doing the best we can.”
The workers on the ground are local residents, with at least a dozen of them now developed into skilled bridge-builders, says Parker, noting with a mentor’s pride that a woman, Peris Kahindi, oversees a crew of 22 men.
The group builds connections both physically and personally with African communities.
Photo Courtesy Bridging the Gap Africa
Natalie McCombs, an associate HNTB fellow, contributes her engineering expertise stateside as one of six technical advisors. “Harmon opened my eyes to how life‑saving bridges can transform remote communities,” she says. “As a bridge engineer, it inspired me to use what I love—and what I know—to help connect people, many for the first time. It brings me real joy to contribute my experience to Bridging the Gap Africa.” McCombs adds: “I share [the organization’s]purpose of building a better world, one bridge at a time. My hope is that others can experience what I’ve found here—a deep sense of connection to something bigger than ourselves.”