Florence, Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya
“The day my kid felt sick, the mobile phone gave me a chance. I just called the doctor direct and asked for the first aid I could perform to the baby. I found it made my work easier”
Florence is one of the approximately one million people who live in Kibera, the largest slum in East Africa. She lives with her husband Nicholas and one year old son Joseph in a 12ft by 12ft shack with mud walls, screened with concrete, with a corrugated tin roof and a dirt floor. Florence moved to Kibera five years ago from a rural village approximately 200km away from Nairobi.
She’s had her mobile phone for four years and in addition to using it in emergencies such as when her child is ill, she uses it to send pocket money via M-PESA to her brother who’s in school. Before M-PESA she used to send money home through other people, which was costly and time consuming. “Now with M-PESA everything goes through safely and at the same time you get the feedback that it has been sent or not”