By GEP Coordinator | GEP Coordinator
The story of Rebecca Storm is an incredible, difficult, and courageous story. Her long and perilous journey from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Kenya in 2011 was so traumatizing that whenever she recalls the memories tears start to trickle down her cheeks. Rebecca lost her parents and siblings during the war in Congo, when they were separated one night when their village was attacked. She managed to escape on a caravan full of people fleeing the Congo trying to escape the war. She could have not predicted the next string
When Rebecca and a group of other refugees arrived at the UNHCR transit center in Nairobi, she was assessed and referred to Heshima Kenya where she was taken in and accommodated in the Safe House. There, she received psychosocial and material support from trained counselors. While in the Safe House, Rebecca was enrolled in the Girls’ Education Project (GEP), an accelerated education program that offers refugee girls an opportunity to access basic education offered in the Kenyan curriculum, where they sit for national exams and are certified alongside other Kenyans.
Rebecca would live in the Safe House for one year, afterwards she was moved to the community to live with a foster family. She was enrolled in Level 3 and vocational classes. Her life was normalizing and she was finally finding peace after the loss of her home and family, and having to flee to a strange country. However, tragedy struck one Sunday afternoon again when she was walking back from Church alone. That’s when she met one of her friends, a boy she had travelled together with from Congo who also lived in her neighborhood. When she stopped to chat with him, little did she know that the boy had been trailing her and was accompanied by other boys who were hiding nearby with a car. Out of nowhere, several boys came and carried her to a waiting car, where she was kidnapped and taken to Uganda. She had no idea who her kidnappers were, their motive, or where they were taking her. She left behind her life, her identification papers, and her hopes for a better future which she had been building at Heshima Kenya GEP program.
For four years Rebecca lived at the mercy of strangers, who kept her as a sex slave. She would later learn that they were also refugees from DR Congo, who had lived in Uganda for many years. One of the men took her to his house and made her his wife, where she had to endure sexual and physical violence for four solid years. While in Uganda, Rebecca conceived and bore a baby boy, who is four years old now. She speaks fondly of her son, and attributes her persistence and continued hope to the fact that she always dreamt of a bright future for him, despite the circumstance of his conception and birth. As she remained submissive to her master who was keeping her a prisoner, Rebecca was at the same time planning on her escape from Uganda. She was lucky one night that her husband was so drunk he let her go out to the toilet alone. The gate keys were also attached to the toilet keys so she took the opportunity to escape.
After another long journey back to Kenya, Rebecca arrived in Nairobi, again with nothing to her name. She quickly reestablished contact with the girls she had met earlier in the GEP program, and with their help she found her way back to the Safe House with her young son. The woman who arrived at the Safe House this time around was so different from the young innocent girl who had been received over five years earlier. Her face was telling a story of suffering and despair. Heshima staff in the Safe House offered her counseling and medical assistance, and she once again found a community where she was safe and protected.
Rebecca has since moved into the community, where she lives with her son with a foster family. Social Workers from Heshima Kenya closely monitor her life, and she receives material and psychosocial support on need basis. She has also reenrolled in the GEP program, where she did a reentry exam and was placed at level three. She has also been attending vocational classes, where her tailoring tutor praises her and describes her as studious and dedicated.
By Osop Abdi | Girls' Empowerment Project Program Coordinator
By Osop Abdi | GEP Program Coordinator
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