“Queen of the Slum” visits Creditinfo Iceland

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Lucy Odipo, better known to most as “Mama Lucy” or the “Queen of the Slum”, is a truly amazing woman. Mrs. Odipo is the initial founder of The Little Bees Children Self Help Group and currently serves as Director. A Kenyan national, Mrs. Odipo has played a vital role in establishing vital projects in Nairobi, such as The Little Bees School a Nursery School & Daycare to provide critical care and support for deprived children.. Through the school and related projects , Mrs.Odipo and her team provide much needed education and help to individuals and families to access medical care and to secure shelter.

Lucy lives amongst the 500,000 inhabitants of the slums of Mathare in Nairobi, Kenya. Most of the people live in tiny, one-room homes made from whatever materials they can find. Conditions are dismal with sewage and trash flowing through the streets along with crime, sickness and death running rampant. There are no government services like water or electricity.

20141008_102612_HDRFor more than a decade, Mrs. Odipo has continually worked towards improving the living conditions within the slum and helped orphans, and other extremely vulnerable children, who have experienced abuse or neglect in their homes and have nowhere else to turn. Even encouraging criminals to change their ways and become entrepreneurs. With her help and guidance, some have started urban farms and recycling initiatives that keep them from their former life of crime.

When Mr. Reynir Grétarsson, CEO and majority shareholder of Creditinfo Group hf, recently found out Mrs. Odipo was on a visit to Iceland, he immediately invited Mama Lucy to meet with him at the Creditinfo headquarters. During her visit, they spoke at length of the projects and exceptional efforts in Nairobi. Also, discussed were Creditinfo’s efforts and further plans of increasing financial inclusion, particularly in emerging markets such as Kenya, as well as touching on some of the charitable assistance Creditinfo has provided in some of the countries within which it works.

Mrs. Odipo thanked Creditinfo for their donation and advised, ”It was really nice to hear about your efforts and expansion in Africa and the school in Tanzania and Afghanistan. Creditinfo is clearly a company with a splendid and ambitious vision of social responsibility. It will be fun to watch you grow and thrive.”

IMG_6700The projects managed by Mrs. Odipo rely almost exclusively on the generous donations of individual donors and are in dire need of assistance, to enable them to continue to run. If you would also like to make a contribution to assist in continuing this good work in Kenya, please check out: http://byflugur.blog.is