Very few people would quit their job and sell their home so they could spend weeks at a time in makeshift hospitals in Africa’s poorest villages.
Meet Martha Flint.
Born in Louisiana but a Texan through and through, Flint, a broker sales representative for Impact Sales and Marketing, Wimberley, Texas, had dabbled in volunteerism most of her adult life. Then in 2011, a family trip to Africa changed her life.
Not that her previous job as a c-store category manager for a Texas chain was bad. It was extremely fulfilling, as was the move to Impact, where she’s still connected with the industry. But today, she can better organize community events through a nonprofit she started, Random Acts Worldwide Inc., Corpus Christi, Texas. She also will travel back to Africa for the second time this year, adding to her countless trips to date.
Q: Tell us about that life-changing trip.
A: While in Africa, I visited an orphanage. It was a desperate place. This one little boy clung to me, saying, “My name is Yasmine. My name is Yasmine.” I can still see him.
Q: So about your choices: Why so extreme?
A: I realized this is my calling. It’s why I was put here on Earth. Fortunately, where I work now, I can put in the time. I was scared to death to sell the house, but it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.
Q: How has your volunteerism evolved?
A: I first volunteered at a women’s shelter where I worked the hotline, but since that trip to Africa, I’ve gone back on medical missions, volunteered at Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana and started my own nonprofit that helps needy families and the elderly.
Q: Do you have a degree in medicine?
A: Oh no. In fact, that’s what I told my doctor friend on my first trip. He said, “Martha Anne, you’ll figure it out.”
Q: So what happened?
A: That first Monday morning in Malawi, we get into a jeep and drive two hours to these villages where there are no doctors. We usually set up in a dilapidated school or church, just mortar buildings with dirt floors. That first day, a grandma walks in. All the women cook over an open fire and five years ago, she had fallen in and burned her hand. Now it had gangrene and was infected. So the doctor needed to amputate her fingers. We had nothing to deaden the pain. It makes me cry thinking about it. So I sat opposite the doctor, took her other hand and made her look me in the eye as the doctor started to work.
Q: That’s heart-wrenching.
A: They see up to 1,500 patients a week. It makes you realize the little things we take for granted.
Q: What about the prison?
A: My most memorable time was in the hospice. For many of these men, their families have abandoned them. I could be the last one to care about them before they die.
Q: What do you hope people will get from your story?
A:Just what I’ve learned: The way you treat others is ultimately a reflection of how you feel about yourself. Love what you do and everything else will fall into place.
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