27/07/2025
Her 11-year-old arms were firmly grasped around his waist, the “Boda-Boda” rider taking her to school. Education was freedom to her 24-year-old mom, who couldn’t pay for her daughter’s ride.
In Kenya, Boda-Boda riders have the privilege of owning a motorbike to charge for transportation. Not exactly an Uber.
Her driver had finished his three paid morning rides: two salesmen in Nairobi, then a washerwoman for a middle-class family.
His fifth ride would pay with her body.
She had twins at age 11.
I met her. We were 23 girls crammed into a tiny rectangular room. The “Restoring Dignity Center” had given me a small stool so I could sit on my own perch for our meeting. She was next to another girl nursing her friend's baby. Not because the teen mom couldn’t feed her own child, but because she hadn’t had enough to eat that day to produce enough breast milk. Both girls wore brightly colored, woolly skull caps despite the nearly 90-degree heat, paired with short-sleeved cotton tops and loose skirts. The breeze through the open entryway helped cool them in the tiny room.
For a long while, none of them met my eyes.
Their center director welcomed everyone and explained in Swahili who I was—an American survivor who had come to help, to hear their stories. I smiled and told them all how deeply I appreciated meeting them. Then, I told them my story. At age 18, I, too, had been r***d. They connected with me. My story was so different from theirs, but we were all survivors.
These teen moms live in Korogocho, an impoverished area just outside of Nairobi, Kenya. They need to build the Dignity Center to live free from abuse with their babies.
Be an agent of global change! Help these Dignity Girls Ride Free. Buy a bracelet or shirt from the Take Back The Night Shop.
-Katie Koestner, Executive Director
