Florence is a 22 year old member of the Mathare Maji Mazuri Youth group. She lives in the Mathare ghetto and she is known to be an incredibly active, energetic and committed member. She has a son, a beautiful baby boy named Morgan. She is the fourth born in a family of seven children headed by a single mother.
She came to know Maji Mazuri through her mother. Florence’s mother was part of the Micro Credit Program ‘Mavuno’ through which she was able to start a small business. Her mother used to share with her how Maji Mazuri guided and trained her to start and keep a business. Maji Mazuri offers loans to people who are ready to help themselves and thus help the needy ones who suffer in Mathare. Maji Mazuri encourages people to believe that there is still hope for the future.
Maji Mazuri has helped Florence to finish secondary education by paying her school fees and counseling her through tough times. After graduating Form 4 she got pregnant and she encountered a hard time. It led her to drop out from the Maji Mazuri Youth group because her baby required all her attention. The baby’s father did not step up and Florence was left to take care of her baby in the same way her mother had raised her: a single parent. Luckily, she could continue to stay at her mother’s house.
Since the Maji Mazuri Youth group deeply cares about their members, youth members regularly visited her home to invite her back to the group and see how they could help out. Florence was very grateful when she saw her fellow Maji Mazuri youth members at her house and she realized that they were really concerned about her. Many youth members counseled her and told her that there is still hope for her future. She could continue to be a youth member. Florence slowly realized that giving birth is not the end of everything, but just the beginning and so she decided to come back to the group. Soon after she came back to join the group’s meetings and activities, Maji Mazuri encouraged and enabled her to follow a training in ‘Hairdressing and Beauty’. Florence finished her course in July 2010 and currently is a professional in Hairdressing and Beauty, something she could have never dreamed of without her fellow youth members.
Florence is a major role model in my life and I have no words to describe how she, her baby and her entire family have benefited from Maji Mazuri. I am proud to know her, because she also seized the opportunities and I am proud to be a Maji Mazuri youth member.
