FLORENCE KEYA founded Maisha Girls Safe House in 2015 to help girls who have been sexually abuse by keeping them safe from the perpetrators. She spoke to ROSA AGUTU. In three words how would you describe yourself?  I am resilient, survivor and compassionate   Where did you grow up and how did the environment impact your life?  I grew up in Majengo slums. Life was not easy so I had to be focused to make it out of there. I was broken but I gained strength and pulled my small sisters with me. It was difficult to get out of that environment.    Why did you start the safe house? t’s a journey that I walked and I lacked the support system to help me get through. So I decided to create a space for girls who have gone through sexual violence to have a safe space and be their support system.   Do the girls in need come to you or do you go looking for them? Most of the time they come from government institutions.  Most are being referred from the courts, brought in by the DCI, and investigative officers. These are girls who need psychosocial support. I would really like to leave my door open for all the girls who need help but it would be overwhelming because the safe house is quite small.     Do the girls get justice? Oh Justice, wow! Some of the girls get justice but sometimes the cases in courts take too long, others do not get to court while others are compromised and there’s nothing you can you do. Roughly two out of 10 girls get justice.   Do they go through therapy when they are there? When they come in we make sure they get psycho social support. We get counsellors from Amani Counselling Center who give voluntary counselling services.   How many girls do you have and what are their ages? Most of them are school going girls. The youngest I have is nine years old and the oldest is 21 but majority are 16 years old. The 16 year olds are teen mothers because they come in when they are pregnant.    Do they go to school? Sixteen of the girls I have go to school. I am really working hard for them to get an education. It’s very difficult because I do not have much support so I keep begging people to help me financially. I still have girls who do not go to school because I cannot afford to take everyone yet.   How do you maintain the safe house in terms of finances and human resources? We have a lot of people who come to volunteer, and I have friends I can bank on who come to babysit for the teen moms. Mostly our support comes from well-wishers, and mostly from people who have gone through the same challenges in life. When they hear we need assistance they come in and help.   What are some of the challenges you face managing the safe house? The biggest challenge is financial. The second is that sometimes some government institutions come to frustrate us, asking why we are hosting the girls. But there are some government institutions that we work with. The other is that cases take too long; if we take in a girl thinking she will testify in 6 weeks but sometimes it takes more than a year.   What are some success stories, from the safe house? I have so many success stories. Girls come here broken but after a while they pick up the pieces, they go to school and perform very well. Right now I have two girls in university, one graduated two months ago. I also have girls in national schools. The biggest success is that a perpetrator got a 20 year sentence after defilement. He was from the Kenyan Somali community and it is always difficult for them to share stories of in-house defilement.    What have you learned from these girls? I have learnt resilience; what doesn’t kill me makes me grow. My work has taught me that we all need each other and you can never walk alone. Do not judge someone before you know their story.   What do you wish every person would know? That sexual violence is a crime; and  anyone going through it is affected psychologically, emotionally, and physically.  We need support in educating the girls and ensuring they get access to health services.