{"id":26061,"date":"2026-01-15T23:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T23:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/26061\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T23:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T23:49:08","slug":"harmon-parker-founded-bridging-the-gap-africa-building-bridges-for-isolated-rural-communities-in-kenya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/26061\/","title":{"rendered":"Harmon Parker: Founded Bridging the Gap Africa, Building Bridges for Isolated Rural Communities in Kenya"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Harmon Parker\" title=\"headshot of Harmon Parker\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/harmon-head-shot-color_ENRready.jpg\" style=\"display: block; width: 125px; float: left; margin: 0 10px 10px 0;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Harmon Parker was building a school for a remote village in Kenya in the mid \u201990s when the director of a non-governmental organization came to him and his partner with a request.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018I know you are wafundi \u00a0[Swahili for \u2018builders\u2019],\u2019\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p>That first bridge was built in 1996. \u201cI thought it would be a one-off,\u201d says Parker. \u201cBut then the NGO asked if we could build another one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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\u2014children 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, \u201cI decided I was going to give my life to building bridges\u201d for the many remote communities that need them.<\/p>\n<p>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. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to scale up. The need is great and the need is now,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re scratching the surface and doing the best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s pride that a woman, Peris Kahindi, oversees a crew of 22 men.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The group builds connections\" title=\"The group builds connections\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GTEmotionalconnection_171125_ENRready.jpg\" style=\"display: block; margin: 20px auto 20px auto; width: 90%;\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"cap\">The group builds connections both physically and personally with African communities.<br \/>Photo Courtesy Bridging the Gap Africa<\/p>\n<p>Natalie McCombs, an associate HNTB fellow, contributes her engineering expertise stateside as one of six technical advisors. \u201cHarmon opened my eyes to how life\u2011saving bridges can transform remote communities,\u201d she says. \u201cAs a bridge engineer, it inspired me to use what I love\u2014and what I know\u2014to help connect people, many for the first time. It brings me real joy to contribute my experience to Bridging the Gap Africa.\u201d McCombs adds: \u201cI share [the organization\u2019s]purpose of building a better world, one bridge at a time. My hope is that others can experience what I\u2019ve found here\u00ad\u2014a deep sense of connection to something bigger than ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harmon Parker was building a school for a remote village in Kenya in the mid \u201990s when the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[63,15990,80,465],"class_list":{"0":"post-26061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-bridge","10":"tag-kenya","11":"tag-rural"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}