Fundraising by Lucia Pandolfo

Githurai 45, Nairobi. We are in an area of youth begging and addiction. Just off the main road, hundreds of trafficked and sexually exploited girls stay in alley clubs to sell their bodies for less than 1 euro. They are people confined to absolute poverty and degradation.

For the past few months I have had an incredible opportunity. I got to know many of these girls up close, and today I live with some of them in a Rescue Home (safe house) of the Father John XXIII Community, thanks to the Amini project.

For Amini, the alley clubs are the starting point for every activity. We are the only HAART group association that goes directly to the streets to meet girls there where they need help the most. We offer them welcome in a safe place to live and a path that finally takes their desires for freedom and fulfillment seriously.

About a kilometer from the clubs, the Amini project has its office and multipurpose center. The local staff ensures that none of the girls are left behind. For none of them - none - was prostitution the first choice. So we organize vocational courses on a weekly basis and reintegration programs, also in collaboration with other associations such as Cowa and Truth International. In this way, women in Amini can acquire new skills, find jobs and reintegrate into the city, away from blackmail and humiliation. We also offer medical and psychological support when needed for them and their children.

Realizing girls' dreams is our mission. We have been offering them totally free services since 2020, and in the past year we have doubled the number of beneficiaries. "Amini" really means "believe it" in the local language, because through the project activities we choose never to pronounce judgment and to believe in the rights of these women.

These women have the right to find themselves after experiencing hell for years. They have the right to realize their own project of freedom and peace for themselves and their families, away from violence and exploitation.

The women we meet are truly a living flame under the ashes of poverty. To choose to support Amini is to break the chain of violence that weighs on these people. It means enabling them to have an alternative, to have a job so that they can be self-sufficient sooner rather than later and provide for their children's schooling, medicine, food and clothing on their own.

Even a small contribution can really make a difference. Help us support the women of Amini!