Life Bloom

I want to tell you about a woman who is doing a tremendous amount to heal the community of sex trade workers in Kenya - in particular Naivasha, Maai Mahiu, and the Ngara and Kayole districts of Nairobi. Catherine Wanjohi is co-founder of Life Bloom. Since 2003 Catherine has been running leadership workshops with sex workers, women who suffer from alcohol and drug abuse, are victims of spousal violence, and rape. Many of the women with whom she and her team of peer counselors work to encourage education, reduce poverty, enhance gender equity.

Each workshop begin with a prayer that often turns to dance . . .

One of the peer counselors spends her evenings walking up and down the main road that passes Maai Mahiu town. Here, each night she talks to sex workers and truckers promoting safety, the use of condoms, and encouraging testing for STIs and HIV/AIDS. Each night she passes out over 500 condoms. She explained to me that sex workers are different from prostitutes as sex workers, given another opportunity, would leave the trade and go into another, less dangerous field. These women are doing this work to put food on their tables, to feed their children and extended family. As they have limited education - primary school if they are lucky - they have been forced into the sex trade, and stigmatization makes it difficult for them in their community.

Catherine spends her time visiting brothels encouraging these women and, in doing so, shifts the community perception and stigma. She works to heal this community through education, peer support, and leadership and advocacy work. To date, she has worked with over 4,000 women and have over 500 trained peer educators (mentors). Through her work, and that of her "graduates" she helps create relational spaces which provide a safe place for these marginalized women to gain confidence, knowledge and begin to change their lives.