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SOFIA’S DEFILEMENT
SOFIA’S DEFILEMENT STORY
Sofia Athman is 17 years old and was a pupil of Stara Rescue Centre and School up to 2021, is the first born in a family of 4 children, she was born in a family full of domestic violence whereby her father and mother were drunkards thus would always get home drunk and start fighting in presence of Sofia and her siblings. Life was unbearable as they lived a poor life since the money her parents would get they used it for alcohol. This life situation led to her parents divorcing, Sofia was taken in by her aunt. When schools closed in March 2020 due to outbreak of Covid-19 her mother had gotten a job as a bar waitress selling alcohol, she rented a room to live in and took Sofia to live with her.
Sofia’s mum would sell alcohol and at the same time drink with her clients during the day, after work she would take one of the men home so that she could sleep with him to be paid. Their house has only one bed so she could sleep with her man in the same bed Sofia was sleeping, the girl could see everything that was happening. Her mum keeps changing men everyday as she brings them to their house
One of these men started seducing Sofia in November/December 2020, she would tell her to accompany him to his house so that he give her money to take to her mother. When they could get to this man’s house he would make seductive moves to the girl, who later gave in. This continued and he slept with the girl 4 times.
Another incident took place in March 2021 when schools closed for second term, another man who her mum brought home, started visiting their house while her mum was at work and he would seduce the girl and sleep with her. This happened 3 times over the holidays.
After holidays and schools reopened on 10th May 2021, Sofia reported back to school but it was noticed that the girl had grown and developed abnormally, raising suspicions of a possible pregnancy. This raised an alarm and her aunt was contacted, Sofia was taken to a clinic where both pregnancy and HIV tests were done. Pregnancy test results came out positive but luckily HIV test turned out negative.
The matter was later reported to Police whereby she was referred to Nairobi Women’s Hospital Gender Violence Recovery Centre for Medical examination which was carried out including STIs screening and pregnancy test whereby STIs screening came out negative but once again pregnancy was confirmed positive. As for now, Police statements have been recorded after which suspects will be arrested and arraigned in court for prosecution. Sofia has been enrolled for Psychosocial Counselling sessions at Coptic hospital.
Considering the vulnerability of the case and the environment she lives in we have assessed that Sofia lacks a safe place to live in thus exploring option with other partner entities in this case for a possible safe house to take the girl to for this pregnancy period. She is still attending her classes, after she delivers, Sofia will resume her studies at Stara.
Our core objective is to make sure that we walk with Sofia through this journey and make sure that she is safe, supporting her in the best way we possibly can.
ASHLEY ATIENO’S CASE
ASHLEY ATIENO’S CASE STORY
Ashley Atieno was a student of Stara Centre and School up to 2020, at this time she was living with her aunt following the passing on of her mother, she was 12 years old and in class six when Covid 19 struck and she fell into the wrong company.
During the Covid-19 pandemic period which forced schools to be closed thus children had to stay at home as per the government’s directive. While at home, Ashley changed her code of conduct drastically due to peer influence, because of this influence she started engaging in indiscipline cases including attending Disco Matanga, dancing for older men, this led her to start having premature sexual engagements. This situation worsened when her aunt who was the major breadwinner of their family fell sick and was bedridden due to stomach growth, Ashley engaged in sexual affairs with older men in exchange for money so that she can help her family meet basic needs. When her parents realized the source of the money they talked to her to stop this behavior. But her being stubborn and rebellious she couldn’t end it.
The girl reported several cases of being in disciplined both at home and at school. She became disrespectful to her guardians and reluctant to engage in simple house chores terming them as punishment. Her rebellious nature disrupted the good rapport and peaceful cohesion in the family nearing a point of being excluded as a member of the family. This led to her fleeing from home to make a temporary shelter at her friend’s home.
While in this home, several misunderstandings started emerging. Ashley had several misconduct which included instances of theft whereby she stole the new guardian’s savings, she was also accused of laziness that is failure to perform assigned house chores. To add on that, the new guardian complained that Ashley was influencing her daughter morally in a negative way to a point that she had started becoming a truant. Due to these misconducts the family chased her away from their home.
Due to lack of close monitoring from her immediate family the girl has been affected greatly by negative peer pressure causing her to continue engaging in age inappropriate behaviors to the extent she even spent several nights at her “sugar daddy’s” house . These vices affected her in such a way that she started performing poorly in academics considered that she was an average performer.
Stara became alerted by this situation and decided to do referral of the case to Coptic Hospital (one of its partners in such cases), the girls was taken through medical checkup of which it was proved that she was engaging in sexual activities but no case of pregnancy or STIs was detected. She was also taken through psychosocial counselling therapy sessions and after several assessments it was recommended that she be taken to safe home shelter which was found as the best option to rehabilitate this girl.
The school facilitated her transfer to “Rebirth of a Queen” shelter where she was admitted and her rehabilitation has commenced. It is our hope that this will be a successful transformation journey for Ashley so that she can become successful in future and become a Nurse as she wishes
Joy and Samantha
Joy and Samantha
The two are girls are sibling who live in Kibera slum with their mother and stepfather. They are aged 11 and 13 and they both study at Stara Rescue Centre. The school noticed unusual behavior from Samantha towards the end of 2023 and a social worker was assigned to look into her household background and to report on any findings.
The school found out that Samantha’s step father had sexually abused her on multiple occasions and threatened to harm her if she told anyone. Further investigations revealed that the stepfather had also sexually abused Joy at one point to an extent where she fled the house in the middle of the night to go and sleep at another relative’s house.
The matter was escalated to local authorities but the stepfather, a sexual predator was never apprehended. The girls were counselled by our staff but it is worrying that they are still living in the same house with that man. The school has been trying to find them a shelter for several months but to no avail.