House where broken women find solace

You may find them in the dead of the night at your favourite nightclub or local brothel, but unlike most, instead of a good time, they are looking for souls to rescue. 

Their mission is simple: to find women who have been battered and oppressed and those forced into prostitution for survival and rescue them from the oppression of 'the enemy'.

They are led by Susan Owitch, a pastor who runs the 'Beautiful Ashes Rescue Centre' in Kiambu county.

She survived nine years married to a violent and wanted criminal, watched him die and spent seven years of her life indulged in prostitution to fend for her two children.

"My husband was violent and there was nothing anyone could do about it because he was a criminal. They were afraid," she said. 

When her husband died, Susan sent her children to her mother and began working nights at brothels and nightclubs.

One night, she met a man from Holland who she says changed her life and inspired her night mission.

"He found me at the nightclub and he was very nice because he offered to buy me several beers and I thought I had scored a good customer that day," she says.

"However, he began preaching to me about Jesus and urged me to get saved and change my life. Then he left."

It would take Susan four months, however, before she decided to make a change after she met the same man and he gave her the same message. 

"I got saved by myself in my house and decided to make a change from there. I joined the church and served in different ranks before starting the centre in 2011," she said during an interview at the centre. 

SHELTERED HOPE

Since 2011, Susan has housed more than 50 women, who come seeking refuge from various situations of violence and prostitution.

Some of the women came as references from people who knew Susan was doing the mission work, while others are women she found in the streets during her night missions. 

"We go to the nightclubs and brothels and talk to these women about the gospel and offer them a place for shelter and a chance to transform their lives," she said. 

However, it is not always an easy mission, since most of the women do not readily accept help.

"Their defences are very high because they do not want to be judged for what they are doing. Some of them will leave in the middle of a conversation to attend to a client and come back after they are done. Others will outright not want to talk to you," she said.

Since Susan leaves her contacts with the women, some of them call her after she has left because they do not want to be seen talking to her at first. 

"They may be afraid to ask for help as a group, but after we leave, some will call me and ask for help and we offer it to them," she said. 

Evelyn, one of the women at the rescue centre, has mixed feelings about her ex-boyfriend. "He was a liar and a player but he was a nice guy who came from a broken home, and it affected him," she said.

The first time he laid hands on her was a slap because she questioned his faithfulness to her. 

"I met him in 2016, fell in love with him and moved in with him after a while. However, he started getting physical when I would ask about his escapades with other women," she said.

Not long after, she says she got pregnant, but that did not stop him from physically abusing her and cheating on her. 

"He came from a broken family, too, and this was how he was raised. But he is a nice guy because even when he beat me, he would still leave my child and I some money for food," she said.

However, when she got pregnant for the second time and he continued with the physical abuse, she decided to leave him for the sake of her baby. 

"He got to the point where he denied that the pregnancy I was carrying was his, but through it all, I never cheated on him because I loved him," she said. 

CRUEL CYCLE

Evelyn has been to the rescue centre three times, each time coming back because she lacks means to fend for herself and her child. 

"I cannot ask my mother for help because she is an alcoholic. She drinks and sleeps on the road, so I have no other place to turn to," she said.

Evelyn, who hails from Mathare slum in Nairobi, says even though the rescue centre has helped her, she is still unable to be economically independent.

The centre allows the women to go look for casual labour around, and she had landed some laundry jobs but had to stop due to the cold weather. 

"I was going with my child and he is just four months old. So when the cold season came, I had to stop because I could not subject him to the harsh weather. I now have no means to earn a living and my six months are almost up," she said.

Evelyn has also been unable to see her son, who is two, since she left her ex-boyfriend. 

"He took him to his mother's in Kakamega, and I have been unable to see him or even communicate since. They will not let me, and I am worried," an emotional Evelyn says.

The Star recently learned that the child has been brought to Nairobi by the father, who is currently remarried.

Still, Evelyn is denied access to him. "He told me I needed to be stable before he could let me see him, but he has stopped picking my calls."

From the centre, she has learned soapmaking skills. She occasionally sells the product from Sh50. However, business is bad because her movements are limited. 

"I am not asking for a handout, I just need a good Samaritan to offer me a place to stay and I will make soap and clean clothes to make ends meet for my children," she said.

"It frustrates me when I have no money to buy food or diapers for my child. He will begin to wean soon and I have no idea where the money for his food will come from."

Before getting to the rescue centre, Evelyn says she had contemplated suicide because she was broke, starving and sleeping in the streets.

"Currently I am very frustrated about my situation and I am scared that my mental health will start to decline because all I do is stay here and think. I constantly have headaches and sometimes I even have water coming out of my nose. I desperately need help," a teary-eyed Evelyn said. 

Despite the challenges, Evelyn says the mentorship and training she has received from the centre has helped her become a better person. 

"I was a drug addict and an alcoholic, but now I am aware of what I want and the kind of future I want for myself and my children."

The centre has taught her how to be a good mother to her child because she wants to raise her boys to be good men. 

LEGAL HELP 

"We need partnerships, especially legally, because most of the women do not have the capacity to fight their circumstances on their own," Susan said. 

Despite being equipped with skills such as catering, tailoring and soapmaking, the women are still unable to be economically independent. 

"The most I can do for them is increase their time here by three months, but other than that, I cannot do much for them after they leave," she said. Due to this, most women will go back and relapse and come back to the facility. 

Susan, who runs the facility with help from an assistant living in the facility, says the centre lacks the resources or capacity to help the women reintegrate back into society after they leave. 

"We also need partnerships to sensitise the women on domestic violence because a lot of them do not know what to do in such situations," she said.

"There is also a need for emotional healing because so many people have been hurt."

Susan says gender violence is a vicious cycle that begins in their families and manifests itself in their lives later on. 

"Most of us come from dysfunctional families, and we have no people to help us tackle real issues. We need a society that will walk with people and allow them to go through the healing process," she said. 

"Parents who are broken raise their children in a broken manner. We have to go back to the drawing board and see how we can help. We are not concentrating on the future because we are too busy trying to make it."