Stories & Newsletters

Meet "Alice"
Science tells us that our bodies are uniquely wired to perceive and respond to threats and stressful situations. We either fight, freeze or run/flight. Alice has been fighting most of her life. She first went into fight mode when she lost her parents at a young age; when she fell pregnant by an abusive partner whose scars of his torment she bears on her forehead to this day; she also fought to raise her beautiful daughter alone after leaving her abuser. She fought for four years to stay alive in remand prison after being locked up and having no one to bail her out.
In December 2020, I responded to a distressing call from a badly beaten up, homeless Alice. After being picked up by a client, Alice was taken to an unknown location in Nairobi where she continued to offer her services to the client however, the situation turned ugly when the client demanded sex

Meet "Angela"
In a room full of women during one of Rejesha's outreach nights, Angela would easily go unnoticed. She came regularly to eat with us but, for the first few weeks, she slipped in and out and did not engage in many conversations. One evening, I struck up a conversation with Angela and I could tell that she was hesitant to say much as she didn’t feel she could trust us but she kept on coming.
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Unfortunately, after Covid-19 hit Nairobi, we didn’t see much of Angela, however, she was among the few women who had left their contact details with one of our volunteers. In May 2020, Angela was among the first women to receive a food package that was delivered to her home in Kariobangi.