There are many issues and developments I'd like to share with you regarding my latest trip to Kenya, but none compare to the reason why we do what we do than this story.

The picture above was taken during my recent visit to Kenya while conducting assessment visitations in the local villages to review current living and health conditions of widows and orphans.  At my side to the left is one of our project coordinators translating my questions to this HIV/AIDS widow and mother of five.  She is standing to the left of us and her children are sitting at both sides on the outer edge of the picture.  Her only daughter to the left and her sons to the right.

This very unhealthy woman had lost her husband several years ago to AIDS.  She is HIV positive herself.  She lives in a very isolated area with no surrounding security and without a husband, there is no one to provide security nor provisions for her family.  She told us the story, that how out of desperation she had to send off her oldest child (her daughter seated to the left on the picture in the shadows) to live with her sister and brother-in-law, because there was no food to feed all her children.  I noticed that unlike the boys, her daughter was very inattentive and disengaged from the rest of the family.  So I ask the mother why her daughter was sitting alone and not in school.

The mother responded that since she had returned from her sister's home she would not go to school and now she just sits in the same place by the house all day.

All the while I was talking to the mother, I could see the daughter covering her legs with her dress as she kept hitting this singular piece of paper lying next to her.   (You can see the paper in the picture above.)

So, I ask the mother what her daughter's grades were before she went to stay with her sister, she told me she was a B+ student.  All testing in this country is standardized, so I knew that a student with a B+ grade was a very bright individual in an area were the schools' highest average grade is a C+.  After briefly assessing the total summation of the mother's responses, I knew something very wrong  had happened to this child!

Upon leaving I immediately dispatched one of our women coordinators and a women counselor to the home.  The two returned from the home some hours later only to report what I had previously suspected.  The girl, at the young age of 12, had been raped by her uncle!  And, if this was not bad enough news the story gets worse from here!

After hearing our women's report, I immediately asked for them to return and see if the mother and daughter would agree for the child to be examined by a local physician.  They both agreed!  The story I heard from the physician's report made me do nothing less than break down and cry!

The physician confirmed the young girl had been raped, but what I heard next I could not comprehend.  The physician went on to describe how this mother's sister and husband were in on the rape together.  The girl told the physician how the mother's very own sister held her down while her uncle raped her.  Then she proceeded to tell him that after raping her, they then performed a voodoo ritual on her, by cutting the inside of her upper thighs and dismembering her genitalia!  The physician's description of her condition was quite disturbing!

Since, there are no local authorities to deal with a matter of this type and because it is family, the only thing we could do is warn the sister and her husband that they are being watched and to stay away from this home and the daughter.

As a father of two daughters myself, I can hardly bare the thought of this happening to any young woman!  In most of my correspondence to you, I've rarely ask you for money.  But, brothers and sisters, I'm not only asking this time... I'm pleading my case to you with tears in my eyes!

There are vulnerable widows, young women and children all over Kenya, Africa and the world that need you to respond to their desperate needs!

An additional gift on your behalf can prevented something like this from happening again.  Had this family been identified and under the care of our program, this young girl would not have been sent off to her aunt and uncle's, because of NO food in the house.  Imagine that!  Being raped and having your genitalia dismembered, because of NO food in the house!

I'm pleading with you to give additional support in our efforts to expand our program by giving a gift today!  Together, I know we can and have been making a difference in these people's lives.

If you are wondering what was on the piece of paper the young girl kept hitting during my visitation.  Well, the women I dispatched returned it to me.  I've kept it!  I will forever have it to remind me why we do what we do.

Written on the inside of this reused dusty and ragged little piece of paper is a short inscription.  It's desperate plea for help simply says, "raped"


Sincerely,

Rob Bollinger
Founder and President

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 Post by Nehemiah's Restoration, Inc.  

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