Leaving his parent’s home in Kathithyamaa at sixteen with a grade eight education, Charles started working on neighbouring farms as a hired hand. It took him two long years to earn enough money for the fares to escape the district of Machakos and head for Nairobi. At the age of eighteen he begged on the streets until he found work as a porter in the home of Cirion D’Souza, an executive in Kakuzi Fibreland Ltd. D’Souza immediately recognised Charles’ thirst for learning, his loyalty and his keen sense of hard work. In 1968 his employer gave him work as a field clerk in the company and before long he became a supervisor, then a manager.

Work moved him to Eldoret where he took his savings and bought a matutu, a public bus for transportation. Before the end of 1976 Charles had four vehicles running the streets of Eldoret. He continued to work as an executive for the Fibre company but decided that his business would be more profitable if he added insurance brokerage, worker’s compensation, a store for tyre distribution, a maintenance shop and a garage for the vehicles. So Mullaways Agencies began. Charles added a property management agency, a land development arm, orchards and vineyards.
   
Making a break
   
The jump came for Charles when he encountered some street kids in the capital, Nairobi. He would engage them in conversation, ask them to protect his vehicle, and buy them food. Slowly, and surely the Lord placed these street kids in his heart. One day Charles decided to give it all away. He traded it all in, to start taking care of street kids. During this journey, Charles had not forgotten where he came from. He knew the streets, he knew poverty, he knew begging and never lost sight of the poor. They were his brothers and sisters. He and his wife decided to take street kids in for refuge. He assisted his father and family escape their poverty and ultimately started an orphanage.
   
Using his wealth, he started a school and planted vineyards and tree farms. He was blessed and every endeavour prospered. Then he turned to higher education, fish farming and export of beans to Europe. He did all of this to establish a new generation of leaders for his nation, raised from the ashes of impossibility, given hope to go on because someone –Charles Mully – loved and believed in them.

Today Charles takes care of 5,000 children, manages two primary schools (which he built), a high school and is developing a university! How far he has come. I find his story inspiring because he achieved it in Kenya, without big international aid organisations.

For more information please visit www.mullychildrensfamily.org