Dear Oprah
We have just watched a clip of 60 mins and we can’t tell you the excitement this generates as we feel as if you are speaking our words.
We have 70 deeply traumatised children in four therapeutic houses in Kenya. Each and every one of our children has a story of fear, violence, torture and abuse – and yet, if you visit us the overwhelming emotion now is one of love. We are sharing about one of our brave girls as, because of OUR approach, she is able to open up about her horrific sexual abuse. This is her story.
We have trained our 44 staff to therapeutically parent some of the toughest most violent boys on the planet – and six years into our programme these children are thriving.
We have looked behind their behaviour and parented into their souls. We are playful, accepting, curious and empathic and these kids are healing from the inside out. Kids who had no life now have a future.
And this is done in far from perfect surroundings. We have traumatised children living together who in theory should be re-traumatising each other – but they have friendships, empathy and love for each other.
Truly – we are doing your dream in the heart of Kenya and we can show you that it works.
Dan Hughes, who is a world leader in attachment and trauma approaches, has visited and endorses the work we do.
From my heart, you need to come and see how you can change the way these children think and grow and give them a positive future. We would welcome you to Rafiki Mwema or would be happy to meet with you and share more about how we work and the progress we have made.
Anne-Marie & Sarah
Each and every one of our children has a STORY of…
It is painful but essential to share with you the way we approach and accept our girls trauma. This is a tough read but we can make no apologies for her story, we can choose to stop reading, she lived every moment and more with no option to pause.
Changing the lives of boys who have lived for many years on the violent streets means rewiring their brains through relationship. If we focus on behaviour nothing can change. If we work through a therapeutic relationship their souls can heal…
