Light at The End of The Tunnel

Jane* a 17year old girl, lives with her mother and sibling, a young boy in class five. The mother works as a domestic worker in Kambi ya moto Bombolulu

area in Mombasa County.She dropped out of school after her primary education because her father who was the breadwinner is deceased. The death of her father caused a lot of havoc and disunity in the family, so when she was 14years old after her primary education, Jane’s mother asked her to start working as a domestic worker in the community in order to supplement the daily food supplies in their household. She took care of the neighbor’s children, washed clothes for people and did odd jobs to cater for the family needs.

Months on, she got involved with the wrong company of friends who introduced her to sex work as an easier way of making money. She would go to night clubs, beaches and local guest houses in search of men who would offer money in exchange for sex. She was once invited to a party and felt out of place since all her friends were hooked up with boyfriends yet she had none. Later on, she was introduced to a man who took her to his house, had sex with her and gave her money. This was her first sexual encounter.

Jane* learned of Trace Kenya NGO an organization that works to counter trafficking in persons and modern day slavery through a friend who uses the in a community learning center (KICODEP) library services , she was willing to take part in the girls’ project and got an opportunity to interact with girls who have underwent through similar ordeal. In the girls’ project they had peer to peer group sessions, counselling sessions and dance sessions as a therapy of change. As a result of participation there was a lot of change: she totally became aware of herself as a girl from different advices and counselling sessions, she doesn’t party anymore rather does hair dressing within her locality, the hair dressing skill was acquired through apprenticeship from her aunt. She then perfected the skill by practicing it in school during games time. As time went on, she continued developing this skill at home until she got advised that it could become a way of generating money and took the advice seriously.

Jane has as well improved in time management herself and is now able to cater for her daily needs .In all this changes, she sees hair dressing as the best job she can do since she gets money, and she is busy hair dressing and therefore has no time to engage in sex work.

She is thankful to Trace Kenya for the change it has brought to her life. She would like to be supported financially to sponsor her training in Hairdressing to refine her skill and find a stall where she can open a salon and a legitimate income.