Florence Makutsa Musine

Florence Makutsa was born in 1953 in Idakho, Kakamega County. She was born into a large household of seven children, where the family relied on the small income her father earned from burning charcoal to provide their meals.

She did not attend school because her parents could not afford the fees required for an education. Instead of going to classes, she remained at home helping her parents and working on other people’s farms to support the family until she reached the age of marriage.

After leaving her parents' home, Florence spent her young adulthood performing heavy manual labor, specifically tilling the land for neighbors to earn small portions of food. She later married and settled in Bukhulunya, where she gave birth to three children, though she eventually endured the loss of her husband.

Life as a widow became a desperate struggle for survival as she worked to raise her three children alone, often finding that the wages from manual labor were not enough to buy food.

During these years, she and her children frequently slept on empty stomachs, sometimes surviving only on "makuani" a tuber similar to arrowroot, or boiling bean leaves and unripe bananas to stave off starvation.

Following the death of her husband, her life was further complicated by the loss of two of her adult sons, who passed away and left behind their own children for her to raise. The burden of providing for six family members in a small mud house without electricity became impossible as she developed chronic health issues like arthritis and high blood pressure that robbed her of her strength to work.

Florence was registered into the Mama Ibado program on June 4, 2018, after hearing about the assistance being offered in Amalemba and reaching out for help. She now receives a variety of essential food items, including rice, maize flour, sugar, cooking oil, salt, and milk, which has stabilized her household.

Florence reflects on the transition from the constant fear of hunger to the stability she experiences today.

"In the past, I would boil wild leaves and unripe fruit just so my children wouldn't cry from hunger, but today my kitchen is respected because of the support I receive," she states.

In addition to food, Florence benefits significantly from the health program, which is vital for managing her arthritis and hypertension. She visits the clinic every Thursday for regular medical check-ups and monitoring, receiving care that she could never have managed to pay for on her own.

Florence expresses deep gratitude to her donors, viewing them as the siblings and parents she no longer has to stand with her in her old age. She still requires urgent help because she is responsible for several grandchildren in a fragile living environment and cannot perform the manual labor needed to sustain them due to her failing health.