Workshops for kids against sexual abuse & violence
ALL I WISH FOR CHRISTMAS IS THE ABILITY TO PROTECT MYSELF
We successfully completed the I Am My Bodyguard pilot project in Nairobi, Kenya in August 2019, where we taught 100 children to protect themselves against all forms of violence including sexual violence and trained 12 local instructors.
We now urgently need your help to fund our next sequence of workshops for underprivileged children at the end of November 2019. With these funds, we will teach more than 1000 children and at the same time give the new Kenyan instructors valuable experience in order for them to run workshops on their own in the future.
The over 1000 children will learn:
- to have the self-worth to protect themselves
- to be confident and not become victims
- to be aware to avoid potential danger
- to have the assertiveness to say NO!
- the self-protection skills to defend themselves
... and they will get a small gift, a free lunch and a fun interactive day.
It costs as little as 15 Swiss Francs or US Dollars to train one child; giving her/him a good chance not to become a victim.
Your donation will go a long way to prevent stories such as what happened to Agatha, who we met at a girls' refuge on our last trip. She was raped at the age of 14 by a close relative and got pregnant as a consequence. She was then disowned and kicked out by her family and found herself on the streets.
Three organizations have approached us and asked us to teach the children under their care how to protect themselves against sexual abuse and violence. One is a community based project called the NAREC organization, formed to alleviate the suffering of the Kawangware slum dwellers; focusing on environment, sanitation and women and youth empowerment. BrightBurn School, based at Satellite Kabiria slums, which provides education for poor and vulnerable families. And St Aloys FP Academy provides education to the poor and marginalized in Embakassi and its environs. 
Both Kawangware and Satellite Kabiria slums are characterized by extremely dense populations, where the majority lives below the poverty line of less than a dollar a day. Unemployment rate is up to 70% for young people and adults; thuggery and thieving are becoming the main source of money and food. These factors make these slums dangerous places to live.
Child abuse such as begging on the streets, disposing of waste for local traders, collecting scrap metals for resale, carrying luggage, cleaning, drug peddling etc. are rampant. However, worst off are the girls who are traded in commercial sex activities. Prostitution is rapidly growing and has resulted in high levels of HIV/AIDS infections, early pregnancies, abortions, child trafficking, school drop-outs and perpetual increase of children living on the streets. The most recent reports show an alarming increase in rape and abuse of children; 2 out of 5 children in theses slums are victims of such crimes.
Your donation will help equip children with the life skills needed to protect themselves and considerably reduce the chances of them becoming victims to the ever present violence in the environments they live in.
As one of the children on the last workshop said to me: "All I wanted for Christmas was the ability to protect myself." Let's give these children an early Christmas present.
Thank you from Chris and the I Am My Bodyguard Team.
