Florence Mbithe studied Marketing at Daystar University and went on to have a successful career as a marketer. However, as she was approaching her 40th birthday, she began feeling as if God was calling her to do something else.
Florence had always been aware of poverty and need in her community, even as a child. She said, "I never lacked as a child, but I grew up around poverty. There were these children who would come to school hungry, barefoot, cold. I didn’t get why it was so important to teach them mathematics instead of first feeding and clothing them.”
Along with a few women from her church, Florence set out to feed and clothe the children in the Bondeni slum in Athi River, the same town where Daystar's largest campus is. "The children in Bondeni who were starving and homeless were children to people I (once) shared a classroom with," Florence said. "I couldn't pretend that wasn't my reality. So I answered the call."
However, because of the gravity of need in Bondeni and a lack of resources, her feeding program was forced to pull out of the slum soon after it began. Just a couple weeks after they left the slum, some of the boys that Florence had met while doing the program came looking for her. When they found her and she saw the impact the feeding program had made, she knew she had to return to Bondeni to resume her work. This time, Florence knew she had to be completely committed to the program; she quit her job and started what is now known as Bondeni Children's Rescue Centre.
Florence said, “I didn’t plan for this to become my life. All I knew was that these children needed help and no one else seemed to be providing it.” Her vision is to eventually buy land, build a school, and be self-sustaining so they never have to turn a child away. Florence said, "There is only so much you can plan. So after you've done the best you can, you take the leap and allow God to work His miracles."
Original article: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2001238450/we-quit-great-jobs-to-go-into-business-here-s-what-we-ve-learnt