Motivating people is my lifestyle

By Dorcas Muga-Odumbe

I was born and brought up in Nairobi's Kibera slums and I frequently visited my grandmother, who also lived in Kibera. Whenever I paid her a visit, I would engage her neighbours in stories and laughter.

Her neighbours constantly told her that her granddaughter ‘fired up’ everyone around her because after I left, there would be some kind of joy and liveliness.

Little did I know that they had seen something in me, something that would come in handy four decades later.

That liveliness and joy I brought to people was just but a candle flickering in me; now it has become a fire burning inside me. It is the fire of motivating people and telling them that they can be whatever they want to become so long as they persevere the hardships before success.

I was gifted in jewellery making and started my own company Emister International to design African jewellery. In 1993, I participated in a competition and won the overall prize of a sponsorship to study International Marketing for three months in Polland.

I met my husband David Soroko, an American in 1990 and we got married here in Kenya. We stayed here for four years then went to Zambia, where we lived for six years.

Zambia was not exactly what I expected it to be. I had hoped to continue with my jewellery business but I could not find the specific beads I needed to make them. After combing through the markets, I was so disappointed that I had to put my dream on hold for a while.

I was not entirely discouraged, as it was in Zambia that I horned my skills in organising fashion shows for charity, something I still do to date.

We later moved to Madagascar for two years and finally to the Fairfax, Virginia in the US.

My church

Settling in the US was not exactly easy, but we managed. It was while working in the US that I felt the urge to do more than just office work. I found myself motivating people at my place of work, in my neighbourhood and even my church.

Soroko with Bishop Kevin Smith from Jamaica. [PHOTOS: MAXWELL AGWANDA/STANDARD]

It was like history repeating itself; the little girl who fired up her grandmother’s neighbours was at it again.

I, however, had one problem: I was terrified of public speaking. I always knew I had so much to tell the world, but my courage constantly failed me.

 I mustered all the courage I had and joined Toastmasters a group that helps people overcome the fear of public speaking.

The first time I attended a Toastmasters meeting was a defining moment for me. When my chance to speak came, I thought my knees would give way, but I managed. I soon found myself enjoying standing on a podium and sharing my heart with the world.

Churches, organisations and schools then began calling me to give motivational talks to their children, staff and congregants.

Soon, it became like a second career to me, and the best thing about it was that I loved every minute of it. Motivating people has become more or less like my lifestyle, because I even find myself motivating the person seated next to me on a plane.