Feed and Empower Domestic Violence Survivors-Kenya

Our work at Agatha Amani House goes on during the three-month  lockdown due to COVID-19. We continue to serve our current residents, but have not taken new survivors into the shelter since the virus outbreak due to risk of infection. We utilize remote screening to advise survivors in the community of the options and resources available to them. 

 AAH is grateful to be approved for a GlobalGiving microgrant to address challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Planning is underway to build a quarantine room separate from the shelter house where we can house and safely integrate new residents, as well as our furloughed staff members as they return.

 Self-sufficiency is a goal we strive for, and it has been a benefit during these challenging times. Cultivating crops and livestock within the shelter compound have provided for most of our food needs. Through a grant from Urgent Action Fund-Africa, we are constructing a new biogas digester to replace our old one, which will better generate sufficient clean energy for heating and cooking.  The grant also covers the purchase of two additional cows and an expansion of the cowshed.

 In the midst of these challenges, we celebrate the success of one of our graduates. Imani (not her real name) fled an abusive marriage with her child. The fact that she is deaf created an additional barrier to independence, but during her time at Agatha Amani House, she was able to heal and to develop strength and resiliency. She is now self-sufficient, working in a mini-factory which allows her to provide for herself and her child.  

 As AAH strives to adapt to a “new normal”, we are grateful to those donors who support our work to provide healing and hope to the survivors of gender-based violence.

Links:

• https://www.empoweringmindsinternational.org