Hi Lovely Friends!
I recently spent time at our projects in India and Nepal, and then after a week home, visited our newer projects in Kenya. Although the back to back trips were intense (maybe not my best idea ever 😜), it’s always energizing to spend time in person with the staff and partners, and most especially the girls!
Roots in the grassroots: Our work has expanded in the past 3 years, and we now serve 2000 girls each year. Our strategy is investing in – and working alongside – local solutions and dedicated grassroots leaders. I was reminded time and again on this trip that ‘Small is Beautiful’. Projects that are extremely personal and individualized work best for those healing from extreme trauma or overcoming generational abuse. As we look forward, we are committed to maintaining a high level of individualized care. Rather than adding more girls, we are focusing on deepening the work and making each project as holistic as possible.
KENYA
HFC began working in Kenya in early 2024. We chose two partner organizations, and have piloted new projects as well as supporting existing projects. We are working with girls from nomadic ethnic groups – the Maasai and Samburu – and girls in slum communities. The girls are rescued from, or at high risk for child marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM), or trafficking. Rather than brothels and red light areas, girls tend to be trafficked informally, when they are sent out to find food for the family. They sell their bodies because they have no other way to get food. Parents look the other way out of desperation.
In a village of Narok County, about 2 hours from Nairobi, we have launched a leadership program and small shelter with our partner Life Bloom. The shelter is based in a school, which is a unique model.
The next day, we conducted workshops and listening sessions with graduates of the Community Counselors program that we supported last year (and hope to support again later in 2025). The Community Counselors are people from the community, most of whom have faced their own serious challenges. They took an intensive 6 month training – designed by Life Bloom Director Catherine Wanjohi (who first invited us to visit and work in Kenya) in mental health counseling. Now they are able to provide counseling support to others in the community, including the kids in the school. They are changing their community from within, and that is the most powerful change there is!
From right to left: meeting with mothers, community counselor program, me and Life Bloom Director Catherine Wanjohi
It was wonderful to see the progress of the 45 kids who have been in the leadership program since I last visited in July. The children were much more confident and happier. They had clean and undamaged school uniforms. They spoke proudly in English about their achievements and experiences. They are excited to help other kids using the peer counseling skills they have gained, and they know when to bring a trusted adult into the conversation (and who to trust with sensitive topics such as child marriage). Another 45 children have just been enrolled into the Leadership program, and we have begun renovations to upgrade the shelter.
I enjoyed meeting with a group of 30 mothers of children in the school, who have been supported with training in traditional beadwork (which they can sell locally, and hopefully in the future internationally). These women were married as young girls, and have been treated as property in their families and communities. This project was the first time for many of them that they got to leave the home to do something for themselves. They talked about child marriage and FGM, the alternative path of education for girls. They sang songs and listened to each other’s stories and felt less alone. They have already made some income from their products, and have used it to buy school supplies or pay tuition for their children. The benefits to their mental health are even more profound, as they gain a sense of freedom and learn to advocate for themselves, each other and their daughters.
The Narok project is based on a model called Asset-Based Community-Led Development – or ABCD. It starts by looking for the strengths and assets already existing in a community – in this case, a supportive chief and teachers, an amazing trainer from the community, a church that donated space for the women to meet, an existing shelter building that just needed some updating. The ABCD model makes it much more likely that development efforts will be well-received and successful, and that the community will eventually have the capacity to take over the work, and protect their own daughters.
The next day, we conducted workshops and listening sessions with graduates of the Community Counselors program that we supported last year (and hope to support again later in 2025). The Community Counselors are people from the community, most of whom have faced their own serious challenges. They took an intensive 6 month training – designed by Life Bloom Director Catherine Wanjohi (who first invited us to visit and work in Kenya) in mental health counseling. Now they are able to provide counseling support to others in the community, including the kids in the school. They are changing their community from within, and that is the most powerful change there is!
As always, I am deeply grateful for HFC to play its part, and grateful to you – our incredible community of love – for making it possible. As we enter our 20th year, there is so much to celebrate!