Harmon Parker was building a school for a remote village in Kenya in the mid-1990s when the director of a non-governmental organization came to him and his partner with a request.
“’I know you are technicians [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.”
From here the projects progressed. Parker, who speaks Swahili, heard stories from many other villages cut off by floods and unable to cross the river: children dying because their mothers couldn’t get to the clinic on the other side, and teachers killed by crocodiles while trying to lead students across a river on foot. In 2000, “I decided I would dedicate my life to building bridges” for the many remote communities that need them.
He founded Bridging the Gap Africa, a non-profit organization that built 11 bridges last year. It plans to build 13 of them this year, 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 just scratching the surface and doing the best we can.”
The workers on the ground are local residents, with at least a dozen of them becoming skilled bridge builders, Parker says, noting with mentor pride that one woman, Peris Kahindi, oversees a crew of 22 men.
The group creates both physical and personal connections with African communities.
Photo courtesy of Bridging the Gap Africa
HNTB Associate Fellow Natalie McCombs brings her US engineering experience 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 gives me great joy to bring my expertise 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 have found here: a deep sense of connection to something bigger than ourselves.
