{News from Anne Marie in Kenya}
Amena and I held the girls group on our own. This is a fantastic group but it ALWAYS results in one or more of the girls telling their story – and what tragic, heartbreaking and totally devastating stories they have to tell.
Our little F told her story tonight and gave EVERY single detail of what had happened to her from the build up of being sent home for being late (her brother was sick and she had to look after him in the morning) and how this led to her rape by a man known to her. She truly gave every single detail – I was in tears as where many of the girls with her. Then she spoke about going to the police station, how shameful that was, being taken to the remand for her care and protection – what a joke!
At the remand she experienced violence and sexual abuse from the other girls – the girls who were victims of crime where in dorms with perpetrators of crime. There were no visible adults on duty at night. She experienced girls climbing into her bed and touching her, fights breaking out in the night with girls strangling each other. They had one set of clothes, which the girls had to take off at night and wash ready to wear the next day. I don’t really see where either CARE or PROTECTION took place. Two of the other girls spoke about their time at the remand where they had experienced the same things. Saddened beyond belief.
After the group one of girls spoke to me and told me about her night terrors and her fears that she will never feel any better. She then spoke of a THIRD rape that she hadn’t spoken about before. I just break to feel and experience their pain and I thank god they are with us in relative safety. I know our girls will get better over time but I so wish I could speed up their process. I just can’t imagine how they are feeling – this young lady cannot stop her thoughts and pictures both day and night. She feels she shouldn’t live as she must be a bad person – and that is why God has made her suffer in this way. She is just a baby child. Heartbreaking. This group will continue when we have gone – it is so important to them and I know once their stories have been told they will begin to join in their healing.
