Justice and Human Rights Kenya Project #4720

The Safe House: An Enclave of Peace and Hope

by RefuSHE

Project Report | Jun 6, 2023
Samiya Escapes Child Marriage

By Madeline Balser | Development & Communications Coordinator

Samiya is a 24-year-old refugee woman from South Sudan. Raised by her extended family, her uncle attempted to force her into marrying an elderly man at the age of 13. Samiya refused and was able to run away and stay with an aunt in Ethiopia for some time. Samiya attended school in Ethiopia up until 2017 when she became pregnant. After giving birth to her son in Ethiopia, her uncle brought them both back to South Sudan and attempted to marry her off to anther elderly man against her will. After a month, Samiya fled from her uncle’s residence with her son and her friend to Nairobi, Kenya.

The two friends traveled by bus through the Moyale border to Nairobi. Samiya stayed with her friend Nadima and her two children from 2019 to 2020 when her friend relocated to Egypt. Samiya then moved in with her neighbor Christine who is also from South Sudan, and she took shelter with this woman, along with her husband and nine children. Samiya and her son briefly attended school, until her cousins from South Sudan tracked her down to return her to her home country. When Samiya refused, they beat her badly and Christine took her to stay at a friend’s house until she was fully recovered. Samiya’s uncle reached out again and threatened to come get her and her son from Nairobi. Samiya went to La Africana in Kibera for help where she was referred to the SHOFCO Safe House and stayed there for a month before being referred to RefuSHE’s Safe House in September 2022.

Samiya now resides in a safe and secure housing unit that has 24 hour security on site for ample protection. She receives food, clothing, cottage skills training, medical care, and mental health counseling. Samiya has particularly enjoyed the cottage skills training and now makes beautiful crocheted items. She had some previous knowledge of crocheting and hair dressing before arriving at the Safe House and has been able to perfect her skills through days of practice and training. She hopes in the future to join RefuSHE’s hair dressing and beauty vocational track, and that she can gain certification and have a business one day. At the Safe House, Samiya is able to find community with other refugee girls and young women who can support and relate to each other.

Despite the plentitude of hardships Samiya has experienced, this resilient young woman still chooses to be grateful for the life she has. She claims that, “everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learned that whatever state I am in, I embrace being content”.

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Learn more about RefuSHE's Safe House

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Feb 8, 2023
Ketty Finds Her Peace

By Madeline Balser | Development & Communications Coordinator

Ketty is a 15 year old girl from Burundi. Ketty fled from Burundi in 2018 due to issues of insecurity. In 2015, her father was accused of killing a general which caused great harm to her family. Ketty and her siblings were violently attacked, and her fatherfled,leaving Ketty and her siblings unaware of his location orwhether he was alive or dead. Ketty’s grandmother took herand her siblings in and stayed with them for three years until one day her brother saw the people who had attackedthem, and her grandmother sent them to Kenya for protection.

Ketty’s journey to Kenya was challenging and full of uncertainty. Her grandmother had a friend who operated a transport business transporting goods from Burundi to Kenya. She talked to her friend and made arrangements for their travel. She sold her farm and gave them some money for their journey. The driver brought them to Kenya and dropped them in Nairobi. Not knowing anyone, they heard people speaking their language in a church and decided to speak to the pastor.After hearing their story, he offered them accommodation and found a job for Ketty’s sister, selling tea in the neighborhood. Ketty lived with her sister and brother and with the assistance of the pastor, they were given an alien card by the UNHCR. Her older sister eventually left them because she could not handle the stress of raising her two siblings without a decent job.

Ketty joined the Safe House program on November 18th2022.

At Safe House, Ketty receives Cottage Skills training and English lessons. She feels safe and says they have provided her with basic needs. She has received mental health support as she speaks to a counselor who helps her relieve her stress. Before RefuSHE, Ketty was troubled. Having a father who sexually abused her was very difficult. She could not easily open up to her teachers about it and she had difficulty studying because of what happened at home. Her teachers noticed she was distracted and tried talking to her, but she found it hard to open up because she was embarrassed. Through RefuSHE’s intervention, Ketty is pleased to be in an environment surrounded by support from her caseworkers and other beneficiaries.

Ketty is very ambitious and wants to do a job where she will help others. She desires to be a pilot, doctor, and a soldier. She wants to be a pilot to explore different countries and see how others live by understanding different cultures. Shewants to be a soldier because she aspires to help people in difficult situations like when her family was attacked. She wants to be a doctor as it will earn her money while she helps the sick so that she can open achildren’s home in the future.

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Oct 13, 2022
Cottage Skills for Healing

By Madeline Balser | Development & Communications Coordinator

When refugee girls arrive at RefuSHE's Safe House, our top priority is to provide them with shelter, safety, and protection. Once these basic needs have been met, we go a step further and address the unique mental health needs of each girl in our care.

All the girls and young women in our Safe House program attend mental health counseling with a therapist to process and heal from past trauma. RefuSHE takes a comprehensive approach to mental health, rooted in the foundations of our holistic model. Talk therapy, although incredibly useful and effective, is only one approach to healing trauma. At RefuSHE, we also incorporate movement and creative arts therapy into our treatment plans. Our Yoga and Cottage Skills Programs work with both the mind and the body, while also helping to forge a sense of safe community from which refugee girls can draw comfort and support.

Cottage skills are traditional skills such as knitting, beading, hairdressing, cooking, and baking which are practical but also therapeutic. Safe shelters often provide protection, but residents have an abundance of unstructured, idle time which can fuel feelings of depression or hopelessness. Safe House residents enjoy expanding their skillsets through the Cottage Skills program while bonding with their housemates and processing trauma through creativity.

Incorporating creative arts therapies like cottage skills training into RefuSHE’s mental health work has helped refugee girls improve cognitive and sensory-motor functions, develop self-esteem and self-awareness, build emotional resilience, enhance their social skills, and reduce and resolve conflicts and distress. Much like the therapeutic nature of the handicraft work in the Artisan Collective, RefuSHE’s Cottage Skills Program employs repetitive motion and rhythmic crafts to keep the hands and minds of Safe House residents occupied and stress-free.

When girls exit the program, they leave equipped with skills which allow them to start up a petty trade business as well as increased self-worth and independence as individuals. These skills can also help break the cycle of domestic violence for refugee girls as they now have the tools to support themselves and are less likely to return to their perpetrators. Some girls exit the program and aim to earn a living from handicrafts while others may run a household with children and a family to care for. Wherever their path takes them, residents leave RefuSHE’s Safe House with the practical skills and self-confidence to help them navigate their next chapter.

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