In January 2023, I accompanied New York Times writer Nick Kristof to a shelter to photograph girls aged 14 or under who have suffered severe sexual abuse. The walled safe house, run by a nonprofit called Kara Olmurani, is located on the outskirts of Nairobi and home to 24 young girls, whose stories are harrowing.
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In the Kara Olmurani safe house on the outskirts of Nairobi, fifteen-year-old Muriel and her 7-month-old baby look out of the window into the playground below. Muriel was raped at school at age 13 by a young man who entered the school grounds and drugged her. She became pregnant from that rape, and hospital authorities informed the police. To date, the perpetrator has not been found.
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The tree of hope...photographs of some girls who have completed counseling at the Kara Olmurani house in Nairobi. There are currently 24 young girls at the shelter who were all abused by older men and in some cases, their fathers.
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One of the young Kara Olmurani girls while playing hide and seek in the courtyard of the protected house in Nairobi.
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Fourteen-year-old sexual assault survivor, Nancy, washes dishes at the Kara Olumurani safe house in Nairobi, Kenya. Nancy was attacked and raped by a policeman when she was 11 years old while walking her young brother home from school. The policeman has still never been identified.
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'I am a girl; smart, strong and beautiful'.
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A makeshift picnic table, and one broken chair, in the garden of the Kara Olumurani shelter for abused women in Nairobi, Kenya.
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One of the 24 sexually abused girls who now live in the protected environment of the Kara Olmurani safe house. 'Being with other girls in the same situation has made us stronger. It is safe in here'.
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Muriel, aged 15, in the Kara Olumurani safe house in Nairobi, Kenya. She gave birth to a little girl when she was 14 years old after an attack on the grounds of her school. “I could not tell anyone,” Muriel, 14, told me. “My mum would not have understood. But here I can talk'.
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Young sexual abuse victims at Kara Olumurani shelter in Nairobi.
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Sexual violence persists because it’s hard to talk about. It thrives in silence, leaving children nowhere to turn.
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'There are opportunities even in the most difficult moments.'
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A teddy bear sits on a bed in the Kara Olmurani shelter for young abused women. The house currently has 24 girls, all of whom have been sexually abused, and in only one case has there been a prosecution. Impunity continues in almost sexual abuse cases, not only in Kenya but in nearly all regions of Africa and beyond. 'We are here to give the girls strength,' says one of the dedicated female managers who help counsel and run the house.