History of Rafiki Mwema
How it all began
In the beginning
In 2011, our journey commenced with a modest rented house in Kenya, opening our doors to girls who had fallen victim to sexual abuse, seeking refuge during the legal proceedings of their cases. We named our sanctuary Rafiki Mwema, signifying “loyal friend” in Swahili. Within a week, we found ourselves caring for 22 girls.
Enter Sarah Rosborg
Enter our guardian angel in the unlikely form of Sarah Rosborg – this tattooed metal head literally saved our souls and gave a future to all the girls and boys we have supported over the last eight years. Sarah held an online auction and raised enough funds to keep the home open for another three months!
With her heart stolen by the girls of Rafiki Mwema, Sarah established ‘Rafiki Mwema’ as a charity within Australia to help fund our home in Nakuru which is now home to both boys and girls, and with the support of her friends and colleagues the Board of Rafiki Mwema was formed and the charity was officially registered in Australia.
Our successes are many. We have grown from a rented house with 22 girls, to four therapeutic houses that are home to 70 children (two girls houses and two boys houses) as well as 180 children who have left our care and returned to a safe family member in their community through our Outreach Program (as of June 2020).
We have:
- installed two video links in local courts in Kenya which is massive because a) they are the first in Kenya EVER!, and b) it protects our children from having to sit meters away from their perpetrators; acquired a farm for our growing family upon which we grow our own crops which allows us to feed all the houses, sell the excess at the market and take crops to the outreach families who live in extreme poverty;
- built “Queens Castle”; the girls’ house and “Kings Castle”; the boys’ house;
- built Rafiki Jasiri, a school on our farm for our smallest girls for whom are in too much danger to leave our farm due to current court proceedings;
- delivered hundreds of hours of training in Kenya, the U.K and Australia; and
- launched two new programs called Rafiki Social (Break the cycle. Build the future) to help our children who leave us or graduate to move into adulthood and back into the communities where they will build their futures, and our Rafiki Feeding Program where we currently provide one meal each day and valuable human connection through games of football and sharing food
Sarah believes Rafiki Mwema has found its calling. Working together to change the lives of these children in Kenya with the love, respect and empathy and they deserve.
